


Any Proper Rock Band Needs a Handyman

by Lisa_Lisa



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: (but just in one chapter xD), (light) Dirty Talk, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Anal Sex, Arguing, Awkwardness, Bathroom Sex, Break Up, Christmas, Comedy, Couch Sex, Denial of Feelings, Dirty Thoughts, Disco, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Flirting, Floor Sex, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Getting Back Together, Grinding, Happy Ending, Heartbreak, Idiots in Love, Jealousy, Kissing, Long chapters bc I don't know how to make them short, M/M, Makeup Sex, Making Out, Masturbation in Shower, Misunderstandings, Morning After, Oblivious Dante, Oral Sex, Rating May Change, Reconciliation, Resolved Sexual Tension, Riding, Rimming, Rough Kissing, Secret Crush, Secret Relationship, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Teasing, Unresolved Sexual Tension, all are humans here, guitarist!Dante, handyman!Nero, human!AU, no blood relationships except Dante and Vergil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2019-12-25 09:37:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 169,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18258662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Lisa/pseuds/Lisa_Lisa
Summary: Nero has been a fan of theDevil May Cryrock band since its starts. Indeed, he may or may not have a little crush on the main guitarist: Dante. But when, thanks to V, he finds himself involved directly with the group, those platonic feelings begin to become more real than he could have ever expected.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saya_Flourite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saya_Flourite/gifts).



> Well, I finished playing DMC5 some days ago and I NEEDED to write something about these characters. This is for Saya_Flourite because she is the most obsessed about this saga :D
> 
> As the tags indicate already this will be an Human!AU so all the characters will be lacking demonic powers. Also, there aren’t any blood relationships except Dante and Vergil that are still twins :)
> 
> Finally, since I haven’t found anywhere the exact ages of the DMC characters except Nero who is “mid 20s” in DMC5, here I say the ages of the characters in this AU: 
> 
> Patty: 18  
> Nero: 24  
> Kyrie: 24  
> V: 25  
> Nico: 27  
> Lady: 36  
> Lucia: 38  
> Trish: 40  
> Dante/Vergil: 44  
> Morrison: 59
> 
> And that is all. I really hope you enjoy the prologue ^^

While Nero was absentmindedly looking through the bus window suppressing his more and more frequent yawns, he didn’t have the least idea that his life was going to be turned around soon.

After all, nothing seemed to indicate that that day wasn’t anything but ordinary: he had woken up later than he should as usual, had been sightly scolded by his roommate and friend V for it, and had left their shared apartment in a hurry, with his tool box doing a rather loud metallic sound while he ran to miraculously take the bus in the last second, in order to go towards the place where his services had been required.

Once Nero had fixed the little problem the client had with his kitchen sink, he had had time to visit two more houses, and after a quick lunch (consisting of a pretty poor sandwich that he had bought on the way) he visited another three, finishing the work rather tired but with enough cash to be able to take it easy the next day.

With his eyes half-closing on its own Nero shook his head lightly, trying to avoid falling asleep on his way home.

However, at that moment he saw something that made him be completely awake once again.

Even if a couple of stops remained until reaching his destination, Nero rapidly abandoned his seat and stepped out of the bus just when the doors were about to close, causing some passengers to begin to protest for the youngsters’ rashness.

Nero couldn’t pay less attention to their annoyed (and annoying) comments though. His attention was exclusively focused on the wall where multiple paper-sized posters had been glued.

Leaving his rather heavy box on the ground, Nero looked around and, after making sure that no one was looking towards his direction, he took one of the posters, because as a fan of _Devil May Cry_ he couldn’t let pass the opportunity to add a new item to his collection.

Smiling like a kid that had just found a new toy, Nero grabbed again his box and began to walk home, still observing the poster. The name of the group was printed with the usual red and black letters that had always given demonic vibes, always respecting the initial logo when the band began almost 10 years ago.

However, there was something different in the poster design. Normally, the members of the band didn’t appear in the promotional posters, prefering to reuse the illustrations of demons that always appeared in their disks covers, but this time the silhouettes of the band members had been drawn under the group name, and in the shadow that belonged to Patty, the vocalist of the group, a big interrogation symbol had been written.

Nero realized then that what he had in his hands was not just a promotional poster but also an announcement, in which the message had been written under the band’s silhouettes:

 

**_Looking for a new Vocalist!_ **

_As you may already know, our dear Patty has been summoned by the Evil Lord,_

_and has been forced to leave our group for the sake of her new mission._

**_BUT…_ **

_That also means that there is a free spot on our Demonic lines!_

_And_ **_you_ ** _can be the missing demon we are looking for._

_So if you are interested in joining our forces don’t be shy!  
_

_Contact us via the email or phone number appearing at the bottom of this poster!_

_Who knows…_

_...maybe your voice will be the key so that_ **_Devil May Cry_ ** _…_

 

Nero whistled. Definitely, the band hadn’t wasted time in searching for a replacement, since just the day before they had announced that Patty had decided to abandon the group to focus on her University studies after turning 18.

After exhaling a long sigh Nero carefully put the poster inside the bag he had hanging from his right shoulder and continued walking, suddenly wishing to have half a decent voice to at least be able to give it a try, because damn if it wouldn’t be nice to meet them in person. To meet _him_ in person.

Nero was still lost in his thoughts (and fantasies) when he opened the door of their apartment.

“I’m home.”

Nero kept his bag with him but left the tool box on the floor with a loud thump, causing V, who was half-lying against the sofa arm while reading a book, to throw an ironic glance at him.

“Thank you for the announcement. You are so silent I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.”

Nero simply tsked as an answer. Banter had always been his way to interact with V since they met in Fortuna orphanage, so he was already used to his friends usually ironic comments.

“Damn, V, can’t Griffon stand on _that_?”

Nero knew it was a lost battle but he still signaled with emphasis the fake, _expensive_ tree they bought some months ago so that the crow had a place to be comfortable without destroying all the furniture of the rented house. The result? A giant fake tree was invading the living room and the damn animal insisted of stepping on everything except on the tree, surely provoking the loss of the house deposit in the long term.

“Yes, he can. But he doesn’t want to.”

Nero rolled his eyes, as every time that V decided to answer way too literally on purpose. He still patted the crow’s head a couple of times, causing the animal to caw in protest but at least he didn’t attack him anymore, apparently tolerating Nero’s presence.

“Then at least we should think about changing the sofa cover”, Nero commented with resignation, beginning to circle the sofa, “because I’m tired of finding feathers every time that I sit--”

Nero shut up, eyes opening wide when standing in front of V.

“What is that?”

V averted his eyes from the book to look at Nero, before following the younger man’s eyes.

“Oh, this?”, V said way too normally, continuing rubbing the head of the _baby panther_ that was curling on his lap, sleeping, “this is Shadow.”

“V, why is there a panther in this house?”

V looked at Nero as if this one was dumb.

“Do you really need to ask?”

Nero exhaled a defeated sigh, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Kyrie”, it was an affirmation, not a question.

“Yes, she passed by this morning with an unexpected present.”

“Damn, didn’t we tell her already that we can’t take more of her animals with us? I get that they are having trouble finding more space in the shelter but damn, a _panther_ ?! And how the hell did she get a _panther_?!”

“Answering in order yes, we did tell her, but you should know already that telling her not to do something is as efficient as saying it to a wall. And second, it seems this one was going to be illegally sold by the zoo, one of the employees anonymously warned the shelter and Kyrie and her companions intervened”, after a brief pause V talked again, with a casual tone that Nero had come to know very well, “but well, you are always protesting that the room next to yours was too empty, so now we can give it an use.”

“Wait a minute…”, Nero pointed an accusatory finger at V, “...you look way too calm with this.  You _wanted_ the panther, didn’t you?!”

V blinked, not stopping rubbing Shadow for even one second.

“He is cute.”

Nero huffed, suppressing the urge of snapping a hand against his forehead when V talked as if that silly argument was completely valid.

“You know these things eat a lot, right?”, V flexed his legs a little on the sofa to make space so that Nero could sit, “we are going to spend half of our earnings in feeding him when he grows up”

V offered Nero a small grin, probably amused because Nero hadn’t even tried to fight against Kyrie’s (and also his) decision of taking the animal.

“Speak for yourself. My earnings are pretty good so it won’t be such a drama.”

Nero hitted V’s leg, even if the young man was right because his articles and poetry were becoming pretty famous and he earned more than Nero did with his occasional works as a handyman.

Smiling against his will Nero reached for the baby panther to rub his head too, causing the animal to yawn and adopt a more comfortable position.

“Just hope this one has better temper than certain crow I know.”

That certain crow seemed to understand Nero because he pecked at the top of his head with enough force to make Nero exhale an ‘ouch’, causing V to hush at him even if it was obviously the bird’s fault.

“So, did you manage to be in time at work?”

That was V’s way to ask if the work had gone well, Nero interpreted while opening the bag he had left between his legs on the floor.

“Yep, I did”, Nero extracted the poster from the bag and showed it to V, “and I got this.”

V frowned with curiosity, left his book on the small table situated between the sofa and the TV, and took the poster. His eyes moved rapidly, reading the announcement, before burying on Nero’s.

“I suppose you will contact them.”

Nero exhaled a loud laugh.

“What the fuck, no!”

“Why?”

It was Nero’s turn to look at V as if this one was dumb.

“Uhm, I don’t know, maybe, and _just_ maybe, because I don’t know how to sing?”

“Oh, believe me, I am aware of that. I haven’t recovered from that day in the karaoke.”

“HEY, I warned you but you insisted you wanted to go!”

“I know, the blame was entirely on me, _but_ the trauma is still there.”

Nero was about to hit V on the leg again but when this one pointed with his eyes at Shadow, Nero refrained himself.

“Anyway, knowing how to sing or not is trivial”, Nero was about to protest rather effusively that it definitely wasn’t when V continued, “what you should focus on is that you have a chance to finally meet the band of your dreams, and that you shouldn’t waste it.”

“You don’t have to say it like that.”

“Why not? It’s the truth. You are _always_ talking about them.”

“I’m not!”

“Oh _please_ , I practically know all their songs because you are always singing them. And…”, Nero knew what V was going to say when seeing the way he smirked, “...don’t get me started with your crush on the guitarist.”

Nero exhaled a frustrated groan that he rapidly muffled when Shadow moved in V’s lap, fortunately without waking up.

“It’s not a crush”, V raised an eyebrow, skeptic, “it’s _not_. I just like how he plays and…”

“...how he looks, and how he speaks, and how he moves in the scenario…”

“V…”

“Yes, that’s my name.”

Nero rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest while a resigned smile played at his lips.

It would be stupid not to admit that among all the members of the group, he had a weak spot for the main guitarist: Dante.

And yes, he couldn’t deny what V had said: Nero thought Dante was pretty attractive. And okay, that he was also hot. And okay, maybe the folder that Nero had on his PC full of images of _Devil May Cry_ was mainly composed of Dante’s pictures,  BUT a lot of people did that with their favorite bands or singers, so that didn’t mean that he had a crush.

“So...”, V looked at Nero inquisitively, “...are you going to contact them or not?”

Nero exhaled a soft sigh and shook his head negatively, causing V to half-close his eyes at him.

“Sorry, V, but I prefer not to make a fool of myself. Besides, for now I’ve had enough of your advices”

“Excuse me? As far as I’m concerned my advices have always been top notch.”

“Oh, yeah? So you have forgotten already when you suggested me to add _Factotum_ to my CV? Jeez, I still remember the face of the man in that office. He literally laughed at my face.”

“Well, it is not my fault that people are uncultured.”

“Ehm, no, I’m pretty sure that you are the only weird around that knows _and uses_ that word.”

“Maybe, but I guarantee you that _Factotum_ sounds way better than that ‘ _I fix things_ ’ that you had written.”

“Hey, I didn’t write it like that...I think?”

“You are right, it was even worse: ‘ _I can fix whatever you need. Call me 24/7_ ’. Please, you were lucky that no one contacted you with indecent propositions”

Nero thought that he had managed to keep his face neutral, but something must have betrayed him because V slowly smirked.

“Wait, so you _did_ receive calls?”

“N-Not that many!”

Nero protested hurriedly, but the harm was done because V was already laughing at him. He did it for some good seconds until a sudden cough interrupted him, making Nero be immediately on alert.

“You okay?”

V nodded briefly still coughing against his fisted hand, but in a couple of seconds the coughing was gone as fast as it had come. Apparently Shadow had a deeper sleep than they thought because the panther just grunted a little but remained with his eyes closed the entire time.

“You can remove that worried puppy expression from your face. I’m not dying anytime soon.”

V’s teasing comment caused Nero to snort. He hadn’t forgotten yet that night a couple of years ago when he woke up alerted by V’s coughing, which sounded even worse than usual. V stubbornly insisted that he was fine and that the coughing would eventually fade away, and he was probably right. After all V had suffered those coughing attacks since they were kids, and eventually he got tired of wasting time going to doctors who were unable to find a cause more than an ambiguous ‘ _his body is just a little delicate’_ that just served to piss V off.

Nevertheless, that time when V coughed a little of blood Nero practically dragged him out of the bed to go the the closest hospital. He ignored V’s sarcastic protests during all the trip, and even if the doctor’s diagnosis was as V was expecting Nero didn’t regret to have done so. He preferred a hundred of high-and-mighty ‘ _I told you_ ’ coming from V than regretting not having acted in time.

“Okay, I think I’m going to hit the shower”, Nero leaned his hand on one of V’s knees to stand up and after stretching he took the poster from V’s hands, “can you order some pizzas while I finish? I just ate a shitty sandwich today.”

After V nodded, Nero walked towards the bathroom humming a song that, obviously, belonged to the _Devil May Cry_ group. Well, Nero thought to himself with a smile, if the band eventually had trouble finding a singer, maybe they would content themselves with someone that was the master at humming. There was no charge for dreaming after all.

* * *

 V waited until he heard the door of the bathroom close and the shower running, and just then he grabbed his mobile from the table, being grateful of his photographic memory while dialing a particular number.

He just had to wait a couple of tones until a man’s voice sounded at the other side of the line.

“ _Good evening, Morrison speaking”_ , if V’s memory wasn’t failing him (and it never did) that man was the band’s agent, _“I guess you are calling for the vocalist position...are you still there?”_

V made sure to speak all the low he could.

“Yes, here I am.”

He was surprised when hearing a relieved sigh at the other side of the line.

_“Sorry, I have been hearing hysterical screamings during the last 50 calls so I thought the connection was failing. To be honest the fact that you aren’t shouting like a crazy fan is really promising.”_

V smiled to himself. He had certainly thought that giving a phone number and email wasn’t very clever if you were a decently famous band, but that meant that causing a good impression wouldn’t be very difficult.

“I’m glad to hear that, because I’m confident that my voice would be able to make a Devil Cry for certain.”

Morrison laughed at the other side of the line. Poor thing, V thought. He didn’t know that it wasn’t a joke.

“ _And may I know the name of the person able to do such a thing?_ ”

V smiled widely.

“Nero.”


	2. Welcome to Devil May Cry

“Uhm...V?”

V was crouching on the floor filling a small bowl with water for Shadow, who was finally awake and moving his tail while waiting for V to finish, when Nero entered the living room,  mobile in hand and already dressed in his pajama pants and the white tank top he used to sleep. His short hair was still damp from the shower he had just taken and a frown was adorning his face while looking at his mobile.

“Can you take a look at this?”

V stood up when Nero approached him to show him the mobile, and of course V pretended not to know at all the content of the email that he himself had written by making use of a fake account just some minutes ago.  

“ _Good evening_ ”, V began to read aloud, “ _we have read your announcement on Internet and we’d like to hire your services in order to fix..._ ”

“Yes, they give here the problems they need fixed, blah blah, but look at the last paragraph.”

“... _for that purpose, your presence is required in Red Grave St 45 tomorrow at 9 a.m. Please, be punctual and make sure to take note of the code appearing at the bottom of the email, since it will be necessary in order to access the building. We wait for your confirmation and we are looking forward to seeing you tomorrow”_

V looked at Nero after finishing reading. It was evident that the younger man was expecting a particular reaction from him, so V proceeded to provide it.

“There is a lot of security just for hiring a handyman.”

“Right?”, Nero said, sounding a little relieved for not being the one in thinking it was weird.

V remained silent while Nero kept frowning at his mobile, as if doing that would help him to understand better its meaning. Actually, all that ‘security’ had sense: after Morrison considered that ‘Nero’ was a good candidate he had given V the address and the code in order to make sure that just the people who had been selected could access the building for the audition.

Also, Morrison had asked for a picture of Nero in order to confirm that he would be the one in attending the citation _alone_ , insisting very much on that last point and on the fact of keeping everything in secret to avoid ‘hysterical fans’ from appearing, since otherwise the audition would be cancelled.

So, in conclusion, there was a reason for all that secrecy. It was just that the poor Nero didn’t know where he was getting himself into.

“I don’t know, V, this is too weird. I think I will pass.”

“No.”

V insulted himself internally when that monosyllable left his mouth in a too cutting way, causing Nero to look at him surprised. Fortunately, suspecting his friends was something Nero never did, which was his biggest quality (or maybe flaw, in this particular case).

“I mean, considering the writing style of the email it doesn’t look like it’s fake”, V adopted the academic tone he used when saying something he was sure about (which was almost always, to Nero’s frustration), “and also I’ve read that lately some big industries are adopting this measure with their employees. Maybe it’s a little excessive, but it’s not that uncommon.”

Nero hummed to himself, completely buying the lie V had just made up. Definitely Nero was too easy to trick. He was lucky V didn’t take advantage of that. Mostly.

“Well, in that case maybe there’s a chance that I get better paid for this job.”

“Or worse, since the richer some people are, the greedier they become.”

V realized again that his light incontinence to automatically correct when someone was wrong didn’t come in handy now, since he wanted to encourage Nero to go, not the other way around.

But, again, it was a luck that Nero was way more optimistic than V was.

“Nah, in the worst case scenario I will be paid as always”, at that moment the doorbell sounded and Nero’s face illuminated, “yeah, finally the food is here. Please V, make Griffon get away from the table.”

While Nero practically ran towards the door to grab the pizzas V let Griffon pose on his arm to place him on the living room’s small table, walking with a little of difficulty because Shadow had deduced there was food coming and was enthusiastically walking around V’s legs, threatening to make him trip.

“Don’t forget to confirm you have received the email”, V couldn’t help to say while Nero closed the door with his feet, his hands busy with the three pizzas he had ordered.

“Shit, you’re right. Thanks V.”

V suppressed a grin while coming back to the kitchen to set the table when seeing Nero juggling to answer the email with his phone while still sustaining the pizzas.

Certainly, it was a _real_ pity that he would miss Nero’s expression when discovering the truth.

* * *

The next morning Nero made sure to be in the address indicated in the email at 8.57 a.m., not wanting to risk to lose the opportunity to earn good cash from that job. He left the tool box on the ground for a moment, extracted his mobile with the email and finally pressed the only button of the video intercom.

After a couple of seconds a man’s voice sounded.

“ _Yes?_ ”

“The handyman”, Nero said out of habit before remembering the email indications, “I-I mean, I’m Nero. The code you sent me was 121754.”

After a brief pause the man talked again.

“ _Okay, could you please look at the camera?_ ”

Nero frowned before doing as indicated, his expression a little hesitant.

“ _Perfect. Welcome, Nero. Please, ride the elevator to the second floor._ ”

The door opened with a small ‘click’ and still feeling a little confused Nero grabbed his tool box again an entered. The woman in the reception was at the phone so she simply smiled at him while signaling the elevator with her head. Returning the smile awkwardly Nero entered the elevator and pressed the button towards the second floor.

At that moment Nero cursed when realizing that the man hadn’t specified the exact place where he had to go, so he would probably need to ask around.

Nero was beginning to worry about getting lost in the way too big building when the door of the elevator opened, together with his eyes at its maximum when seeing the corridor full of people of all ages in an obvious nervous, excited state, standing in line as if they were waiting for something happening ahead.

Being even more confused if possible, Nero stepped out of the elevator and followed the line of people until reaching a small room, where a table had been settled.

And then, Nero’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when seeing who was sitting at it.

“Okay, let’s see…”, Morrison was saying to himself, looking at a paper full of names, “Nico-121743’?”

“Yup, here I am!”

Nero was still staring at Morrison with a dumbfounded expression when a dark-skinned girl with glasses, curly hair and several tattoos bumped lightly against him from behind.

“Ups, sorry, dude”, the girl said, offering him a big smile before approaching Morrison to show her the code the man had just said aloud in a wrinkled piece of paper.

Morrison checked it and nodded.

“Okay. Please leave here your mobile and personal belongings and wait in the adjacent room”, while the girl walked towards the indicated place Morrison talked again, “and next…’Nero-121754’?”

Nero heard his name but didn’t react to it. He was still opening and closing his mouth unable to spell a word when suddenly Morrison raised his face and looked at him, a smile appearing on his face.

“Oh, here you are! You have arrived just in time. Please, leave here your mobile and personal belongings and join the other candidate inside the room until you are called--”

“You are John Daniel Morrison.”

When Nero’s brain and voice finally reacted it was to say something pretty obvious that caused Morrison to chuckle.

“Wow, not many people know my whole name. You must be a really passionate fan.”

And then, what was happening FINALLY clicked in Nero’s head, causing him to grab the handle of his backpack with more force.

 _That bastard_...

“You haven’t hired any handyman, right?”, Morrison’s confused expression was all the answer Nero needed, “please, can you give me one moment?”

Without waiting for Morrison’s answer Nero abandoned the small room with heavy steps. He extracted his mobile from his pocket to dial certain number with trembling fingers, and when the call was picked up...

“ _I’M GOING TO KILL YOU, V_!”

Nero didn’t realize how loud he had shouted until some people of the line hushed at him loudly, so he proceeded to keep talking as heatedly as before but in whispers, which certainly was a little ridiculous.

“ _Must I presume you are already in the building?_ ”

Nero didn’t consider himself particularly violent, but when hearing V’s too calm tone he really wished to strangle his childhood friend.

“Oh, yeah, here I am”, Nero said sarcastically, walking from one side to the other in a rather distressed state, unable to remain quite, “and guess who was waiting for me inside? J.D. Fucking Morrison in person.”

“ _Well, that man has the right to ask for a handyman’s services, you don’t need to be that upset._ ”

“V, do you think this is funny?”

“ _...I guess that’s a rhetorical question?_ ”

Nero exhaled a loud, exasperated groan before leaning his back against the nearest wall, exhaling a long sigh.

“I’m going to kill you, V. This time for sure”

“ _Nero, can you take take a deep breath, relax..._ ”

“NO, I CAN’T.”

“ _...and think carefully about who are right now in that building?_ ”

V’s words made Nero’s heart skip a bit, just before it began to beat faster.

Shit.

V was right.

Devil May Cry, his favorite band since he was a teenager, was just right there, mere rooms away from him.

“ _I guess it hadn’t sunk into you yet._ ”

Nero recovered when hearing V’s too amused comment.

“A-And what if they are?”, Nero snapped, “that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know shit about singing, and...”

“ _As I told you already, that is completely irrelevant._ ”

“But…”

“ _Just focus on what you can offer. Your CV is in your bag. If you play your cards well, maybe you can convince them to hire you_ ”

“And why the fuck would a rock band need a handyman?!”

“ _I don’t know, but I’m sure you can figure it out. And you’re welcome, by the way._ ”

“WHAT? Why should I thank you?!”

“ _You are still there, aren’t you?_ _Which means that you are more interested than you want to admit, because otherwise you would have left already”_

Nero gulped before exhaling a deep sigh, hesitating.

On the one hand, the most clever thing to do was to leave that place. After all the group was looking for singers and he obviously wasn’t one, so if he attended the audition with his zero music experience the band would surely be pissed, thing that certainly he wanted to avoid at any cost because knowing that your favorite music group despised you was far for being ideal.

But, on the other hand... _Devil May Cry_ was there. It was _right there_. What were the chances of that happening again? Of him meeting them in person? Of him having the tiny opportunity of being hired by them?

V was right. Nero still wanted to kill him, but he was right. It was a chance he couldn’t let pass.

So when at that precise moment Morrison abandoned the small office to throw him a glance that indicated he wasn’t going to wait for him much longer, the only thing Nero thought was: ‘ _Screw it_ ’, rapidly approaching Morrison before the man decided to change his mind.

“Have to go now. But you are still dead, you hear me?”

Nero had time to hear a completely unconcerned V chuckling at the other side of the line before rapidly entering the office again after Morrison. His apologetic expression was so honest that Morrison didn’t even protest for the wait. The man simply smiled while Nero extracted his CV from his bag before taking it together with Nero’s mobile and tool box.

Smiling gratefully at the man and with his heart about to abandon his chest Nero entered the room next to the small office.

A couple of chairs, a small table with magazines and another door were the only things inside, so Nero deduced the girl named Nico had entered already. In fact, now that he paid attention he could hear some voices at the other side of the door.

Nero pressed his face to the door to listen, and his heart stopped for a moment when recognizing those voices that he had heard so many times in concerts, songs and interviews.

 _Holy shit_.

They were really there.

The entire _Devil May Cry_ was just at the other side of the door!

At that moment though a voice Nero hadn’t heard before began to sound, singing one of the most famous recent songs of the group, and when Nero got goosebumps just after the first verses he immediately had the feeling that that girl would be chosen. Her voice couldn’t be more different from the other singers the group had had, but it was powerful and personal, and it gave the song a different touch that at the same time suited a lot with the original style.

Nero was so entranced by the song that he almost managed to forget about his nervousness...at least, until he heard rapid steps approaching the door and he was about to fall forward against the surely new vocalist of _Devil May Cry_.

“H-Hey there”, Nico’s ragged tone and her bright eyes indicated that she was pretty close to cry out of enthusiasm, “it’s your turn now”

Nero realized that his apparent calm was a product of his imagination when Nico talked next again.

“Hey, man, it’s okay!”, Nero was surprised when the girl patted his shoulder a couple of times reassuringly, “no need to look so scared. They’re as cool and awesome as they look”

Nero nodded, trying to follow Nico’s advice without any success and causing the girl to smile at him widely before finally disappearing back to Morrison’s office. That girl was surely nice, because she didn’t have the least idea about Nero’s complete lack of singing ability. For her he was just another rival, but she still tried to calm him down. If he was eventually hired they would probably get along. But it was a really big IF…

“Come on, next candidate! We promise we don’t bite.”

This time, Nero’s heart really stopped for real when hearing Dante say that with his usual carefree tone.

However, almost immediately Nero shook his head, snapped his face with both hands to focus and with determined steps he went through the door, who connected directly to the back of a small stage.

Enough of that stupid nervousness.

Yes, _Devil May Cry_ was his favorite band, and yes, Dante was probably one of his favorite musicians ever, but if you thought calmly about it they were just people, like him. Famous people, yes. _Super_ talented people, yes. But people. So there was no reason to be that nervous at all.

He could do this.

He had everything under control.

Or at least, that’s what Nero thought until his emphatic steps caused him to trip over with the cable of the microphone situated in the middle of the stage, resulting in him falling flat and facing down on the middle of the wooden floor with a curse.

A couple of female surprised gasps sounded together with a surprised male ‘ _Wow_ ’, and while Nero was still assimilating what had just happened, he heard someone stepping on the stage before stopping in front of him.

“Damn, kid, are you okay?”

Nero’s heart almost stopped for third time that day.

Slowly he looked, up and when seeing Dante crouching in front of him with a concerned expression on his face Nero just prayed not to be blushing.

Fuck.

Worst first impression _ever_.

“Y-Yeah, I’m cool”, Nero squawked, realizing horrified that he had sounded almost like Griffon so he rapidly cleared his throat, “sorry, didn’t see the cable.”

“Yes, we have already deduced that.”

Nero also deduced it had been Vergil, Dante’s older twin brother, the one who had said that while he accepted the hand Dante offered him in order to stand up.

When Nero was finally standing on his two feet again he finally paid attention to his surroundings.

In front of the stage a large table had been placed and the whole _Devil May Cry_ band (with the exception of Dante who was still _just next_ to him) was sitting at it.

From the left side, next to Dante’s now empty spot was Vergil, the bassist. He wore his grey hair combed backwards and a navy blue shirt that probably costed what Nero earned in a week, his expression as serious as always.

Next to him was Trish, the drums player, who had stood up when seeing Nero fall and whose expression still looked a little worried. She was wearing her still natural blond her loose and was dressing a combination of black top and trousers.

Lady, the one in charge of the keyboards, was sitting next to Trish, biting her lower lip as if she was suppressing a laugh after seeing Nero’s peculiar entrance. She was wearing one of her typical short shirts with cleavage and stuck her tongue out at Nero when he looked towards her direction.

And finally, but not least, there it was Dante: wearing his grey hair in a rather messy style, a not completely shaved beard, dressing a rather simple pair of jeans and a black V-neck t-shirt with the first two buttons loose, and smiling at Nero with amusement before talking next.

“So, you think you can stand on your own or still need my hand for it?”

It was at that moment that Nero realized he hadn’t released the guitarist’s hand yet so he did so as if the contact burned, causing Dante to bark a laugh before patting Nero’s back once with force.

“Relax, kid. You are way too tense. As I’ve said we don’t bite, so try to chill a little.”

Nero knew that if he tried to smile it would come out more like a lame grimace so he simply nodded while Dante left the stage, leaning his hand on the floor to jump down back to the table.

“Are you sure you are okay?”, Trish asked Nero while Dante sat down next to his brother.

This time it didn’t cost Nero that much to nod with a smile before trying to gulp. God, he didn’t remember the last time his throat was so dry.

“So, Nero…”, it was Vergil the one who began to talk once Trish sat up again, and damn, the way the bassist looked inquisitively at him was surely intense, “what song have you prepared?”

There it was Nero’s heart again, threatening to come out his chest.

“Uhm…”, Nero cleared his throat, getting ready for one of the most awkward moments of his life, “the truth is that I’m not very good at singing. Actually...I’m pretty bad at it.”

The members of the band remained silent for a moment before beginning to chuckle, except Vergil who simply raised an unamused eyebrow.

“Kid, I think you should work on introducing yourself better”, Dante commented jokingly.

“Yes, jeez, you should have more confidence in yourself”, Lady said with a light reproaching tone before offering him an encouraging smile, “and please, don’t worry for being nervous. That’s totally normal”

“But bear in mind that being nervous is not an excuse for failure”

Trish rolled her eyes when hearing Vergil’s comment before talking to Nero with a rather soft tone.

“Just give it a try, and let us decide if you are that bad or not.”

Nero exhaled a soft sigh, realizing that probably they wouldn’t believe him until hearing it with their own ears. So, he decided to do the only possible thing at the moment: he sang, his previous entrance giving him confidence that whatever he did couldn’t be more ridiculous.

However, when Nero saw the way Lady was covering her mouth while her shoulders shook for barely repressed chuckles, how Trish’s expression was suddenly too imperturbable, how Vergil was looking at him in a way that if glances killed Nero would be dead already, and how Dante was trying to mask a painful expression without any success...Nero realized that probably singing had been even more ridiculous than his fall. _Way_ more ridiculous.

After a pretty long, extremely awkward silence, Dante was the first one to talk after clearing his throat.

“...Well...uhm...you have probably chosen one of our most difficult songs to sing. And...uhm... it’s impressive that you have managed to remember all the lyrics. And--”

The sound of Vergil clicking his tongue resounded loudly in the room.

“For goodness sake, Dante, don't try to defend him: it’s been _horrible._ ”

“Vergil…”

“What, Trish? Do you dare to say it wasn’t?”

“W-Well, it’s true it could have been better and-Lady, dear, can you stop laughing already?”

“S-Sorry, I’m trying but… _pfffff._ ”

Lady’s sentence ended with a laugh that caused Trish to exhale a resigned sigh. Dante was simply looking at Nero with a light apologetic expression, as if he didn’t know how to give him the bad the news, but Vergil, whose expression kept being rather murderous, didn’t have the same problem.

“Well, you were right. It’s crystal clear that singing is not among your skills, so I greatly encourage you to invest your time in something in which you are at least more qualifi-”

“Actually…”, Nero talked without thinking, realizing too late that the bassist hadn’t liked too much to have been interrupted, but the harm was already done so he continued, “...I’m not here for the vocalist position.”

Dante, Trish and Lady looked at Nero with curiosity while Vergil’s right eye twitched a little.

“ _Oh_ ”, it was pretty impressive that two letters were able to express such sarcasm, “then you simply decided to pass by to make us waste our time?”

“No no no”, Nero hurriedly said. Damn, V had a point when saying that he should think more before speaking, “it’s kind of a long story but…”

“Then you better keep it short.”

It was in the tip of Nero’s tongue to retort that he already planned to do so but he shut up at the last moment, realizing that it would be rather stupid to piss Vergil off even more.

For the way Dante concealed a smile it seemed that he had noticed it, but at the moment Nero was more focused on trying to explain himself the best he could, because it was now or never.

“Long story short a friend of mine tricked me into going to this audition even if I initially didn’t want to because, as you’ve verified already, I have 0 talent in the singing department. But…”, Nero’s pulse accelerated again while stepping down the stage to approach the table, “...I think you could still use my services.”

Nero left his CV on the table, really hoping that someone reached for it, and he suppressed a relieved sigh when Dante did it almost immediately.

“Uhm…”, Nero tensed when Dante looked at him with a confused expression, “ _Factotum_?”

Nero had to bite his tongue not to curse again. Damn V, he had placed the old version of his CV in his bag because Nero was pretty sure he had changed _that_ in the last version...

“It’s a synonym of DIY expert”

Nero was surprised when Vergil said that as if it was obvious, but Dante’s expression didn’t change while looking at his brother.

“Handyman?”, Vergil tried again with a patient tone, causing Dante to finally exhale a short _‘Ooh’_ of understanding before continuing reading the CV, while Vergil rolled his eyes.

“Jeez, Dante, how couldn’t you know that?”, Lady commented with a teasing tone, causing Trish to look at her with an ‘ _Really?_ ’ expression that indicated she didn’t buy that Lady had known that word either.

“So you fix things”, Vergil summarized, causing Nero to tense when seeing the condescending smile the bassist offered him next, “good for you to have such a wide talent, but I still fail to see why we would even need your servi--”

“October 13, 2010”, this time Nero interrupted Vergil without feeling the least guilty about it, talking with a tone that he realized it was a little rude but it was too late to change it now, “it was the first concert where you decided to include acting in your performances, since until that moment you focused exclusively on playing. You decided to use a mobile platform that appeared from below the stage in order to make an entrance, but I guess the mechanism was a little rudimentary and didn’t adjust perfectly to the floor, causing Dante to be about to trip over, even if he hid that fact rather well by doing a cartwheel as if it was part of the show.”

Nero felt a wave of satisfaction invading him when seeing the musicians looking at him with open eyes and half-opened mouths. Even Vergil’s condescending smile was gone, his expression still a little skeptic but his full attention focused on Nero.

“April 7, 2012”, Nero crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning his weight in his right leg while continuing talking without the least hint of hesitation anymore, trying to prevent a cocky smile from appearing in his face, “in that concert you used for the first time the wire-flying technique. Lucia, your vocalist from 2009 until 2016, used for the first time a harness concealed under her costume, in order to begin to fly in the middle of the performance I guess. However, in that concert Lucia didn’t fly per se: she simply sang while being suspended in the air a couple of meters away from the stage and the movements she did were too delicate, probably because you had some technical difficulties during the performance and you decided not to move her as much as initially planned. Probably that was the reason why you suddenly improvised a slow version of the song, so that Lucia’s careful movements suited with the music.”

Nero cleared his throat briefly to keep speaking. By then, Trish and Lady were looking at him with astonishment and Dante’s smile almost threatened to split his face in two. The only one who kept stubbornly looking at Nero without changing his expression was Vergil.

“And, just to take a more recent example, two months ago on July 29, 2018 the demonic costume Vergil was wearing suffered a little accident and one of its wings was about to fall. Again, you did hide that pretty well while improvising a fight between the demon brothers that resulted in Dante ‘breaking’ the wing that was defectuous. Later in an interview you gave some details about how you create the costumes and I really think that with a couple of improvements they could be more comfortable to wear, and also a little more resistant.”

Nero made a brief pause and, again, he felt nervousness settling in his body.

“I could keep giving examples but what I really want to say with all this is that I really love _Devil May Cry_ , since I was a kid. I love your songs, and your performances, and each concert is different and better than the previous one. Actually…”, Nero snorted a laugh while scratching the back of his head, “...maybe I’m the only freak around that had noticed those mistakes, and maybe it’s not worth it to hire someone new if you are already satisfied with your work... _But_ if there’s is a chance that you want to do things even better…”, Nero crossed his arms again and looked at them with determination even if his stomach was clenching painfully in anticipation, “...here I am.”

After Nero finished speaking, a rather long silence fell in the room, during which Nero had to do a great titanic effort to keep his ‘relaxed’ stance, while multiple thoughts filled his head. Had he been too cocky? He had begun to talk automatically because he hated to be underestimated but maybe pointing out all those mistakes had been too arrogant? Maybe they just thought he was just a brat that pretended to know too much?

But Nero’s thoughts were interrupted when a loud clapping sound invaded the room, and his eyes opened wide when seeing that the author of the applause was no one else than Dante, while smiling widely at him.

“Well, _that’s_ the way to introduce yourself, kid.”

Nero exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and smiled relieved before turning to look at Trish and Lady, who were smiling too.

“Very impressive, Nero”, Trish said while Lady nodded effusively.

Nero returned the smile before finally turning towards Vergil, who had crossed his arms in front of his chest in a clear rejecting position that contrasted with the way he was looking at Nero, as if he was still valuing him.

“Oh, come on, Vergil”, Dante said with a little exasperated tone, “don’t be stubborn and confess that you are impressed too.”

“I _may_ admit that he is more clever than expected, but that doesn’t mean that I’m impres-”

“It’s settled then”, Dante interrupted his twin, ignoring the glare Vergil threw at him, “you are in, kid.”

It took Nero his good seconds to assimilate what he had heard.

“Really?”

His voice came out so incredulous that Dante exhaled a laugh.

“Yep. You convinced me the moment you decided to answer back to my sulking, scary brother...”

“Excuse me, who do you think is sulking?”

“...and also...”, Trish placed a conciliatory hand on Vergil’s shoulder when Dante ignored Vergil’s new glare in order to fix his clear eyes on Nero, and this one’s heart skipped a beat with a different kind of nervousness when Dante smiled teasingly at him, “...you really have guts, standing there and giving such a terrible performance just to prove your point. You could definitely make a Devil Cry by doing that.”

Nero exhaled a laugh, feeling equally embarrassed and proud.

“Can't say I didn’t warn you.”

“Actually it’s Dante’s fault”, Lady intervened, “that last sentence of the announcement was really ambiguous.”

“Oh come on, you too? I have enough with this one here”, Dante exclaimed signaling at his twin, who looked suddenly amused now that his brother had been attacked.

“Sorry, Dante, I usually back you up but this time I have to agree with Vergil too”, Trish said a little apologetically, “a voice that ‘makes a devil cry’ doesn’t necessarily have to be good. You could have chosen another sentence for the poster.”

“Tsk”, Dante crossed his arms and Nero _definitely_ didn’t stare at the way the man's biceps accentuated while doing that, “you have never understood my super sense of humor”

“No, we haven’t”

Nero had to bite his lower lip not to laugh when Vergil, Trish and Lady said that at the same time, causing Dante to huff with resignation.

“So, Nero...”, Trish said with a smile, “...when could you begin to work?”

“Right now.”

Nero had sounded way more eager than intended but since doing that caused Dante to laugh again he didn’t mind it that much. Because definitely he didn’t dislike that sound at all.

“Today we will be busy with the auditions until late so what about beginning tomorrow?”

“Really? But we know already who is going to- _ouch_!”, Dante exclaimed when Vergil hit the back of his head without changing his expression, “what was that for?!”

“You talk too much.”

“But the kid is with us now, so there’s nothing wrong with him knowing it!”

“You still talk too much.”

“...You just wanted to hit me for having ignored you before, right?”

“Please, I’m not as childish as you.”

“Oh yes, of course you _are._ ”

Seeing that the twins’ pretty useless conversation was going to last Trish gestured Nero so that he approached her and when he did she handled him a card, that Nero took with almost reverence.

“This is the address of our ‘office’. I guess it’s not necessary to tell you that you mustn’t share it with anyone you don’t really trust, since it’s not the first time we have needed to move because _someone_ shared too much information.”

“Hey, it happened just once!”

“As I’ve said, you talk too much.”

“And you are as childish as me.”

“No, I’m _not._ ”

“The office is open from 8 a.m. onwards”, Trish talked louder to be heard over the twins’ bickering, “but normally Dante doesn’t arrive until 9 so you can come at that hour to sign the contract and begin to work.”

Nero nodded with enthusiasm. Nico had been right. The members of Devil May Cry were as awesome as he imagined, and more easy to talk to than he had initially expected, so probably it wouldn’t take him that much to stop being nervous around them...

...or maybe that was just a wishful thinking, because when Dante winked at him Nero felt his lower stomach do a strange flip-flop.

“Welcome to _Devil May Cry._ ”

Nero was pretty sure that the smile he had while abandoning the room was the dumbest that had ever appeared in his face, but he couldn’t care less about it. He didn’t even mind the weird looks people was throwing at him when he came back to Morrison office to gather his things back, and in fact he kept smiling when he abandoned the building by the front door, still sustaining the card as if it was a treasure.

It was at that moment when he noticed a group of girls outside the building giggling stupidly while throwing not very subtle glances towards the opposite side of the street, and Nero wasn’t very surprised when seeing V there, leaning against the wall with his thumbs hooked in the front pocket of his black trousers, dressing excessively stylish as usual.

Nero really tried to pretend to be annoyed while approaching V, but when this one noticed his presence and smirked knowingly at him, Nero gave up. He really sucked at acting too.

“Shouldn’t you be writing your shitty poetry?”, he snapped when there still were a couple of meters between them.

“I just went for a walk in search of inspiration.”

Nero snorted, clearly not buying V’s excuse this time because this one hadn’t even put effort on thinking off a good one.

“So…”, V stopped leaning against the wall and lowered a little the sunglasses he was wearing, allowing Nero to see the teasing glint of his eyes, “...your death threat still stands?”

Nero rolled his eyes, having difficulties in pushing back his smile while tucking the card inside his pocket.

“No, but I still hate you”, Nero pointed with his head in front of him, “come on, I’ll treat you to a second breakfast.”

“Just that?”, V adjusted his glasses again and began to walk beside Nero, “I thought you’d be more generous since I managed to get you a pretty decent job.”

“V, don’t you dare.”

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse you. I almost die from a heart attack when I see Morrison inside that office.”

“Well, but everything ended well, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“Do you have a job?”

“...Yes, but it was me the one who--”

“With your favorite band?”

“.....Yes.”

“And with your crush, so you owe me more than a breakfast.”

“V, for hundredth time, Dante is not my crush.”

“I haven’t said any names, Nero, how do you know I was referring to Dante?”

“Okay, I changed my mind: my death threat still stands.”

“Then I suggest you to carry it out soon before Shadow grows up, because otherwise I will have a panther as an advantage.”

Nero bumped his shoulder against V’s just for the sake of pretending to be annoyed with him even if both of them knew it wasn’t the case at all.

'Welcome to _Devil May Cry._ '

Nero smiled to himself while remembering Dante saying that.

Definitely, he owed V big time…

...but _like hell_ if he was ever going to admit it.


	3. First day

Normally, because of his tendency to oversleep, Nero used to set his alarm clock with some extra 30 minutes in order to arrive more or less in time at work.

That Friday morning was different though, and Nero found himself tossing and turning in bed from 5.30 a.m., one hour and half before the hour he had to wake up.

At 6 a.m. Nero finally gave up, knowing he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep again because of the nervousness and anticipation, so he kicked the sheets off the bed and stood up. He was tempted to take another shower just to have something to do but the bathroom was adjacent to V’s room, and the last thing Nero wanted was to wake V up because his friend didn’t precisely have a good awakening.

Without having much to do Nero went to the kitchen all the noiselessly he could to have a rather early breakfast. For once V was not there to reproach him for emptying the fridge so Nero made the most of that fact to do so. He ended preparing himself an omelette with two fried eggs and bacon, a couple of glasses of orange juice, a toast with butter and strawberry marmalade, and an apple. After finishing eating the more-lunch-than-breakfast, Nero still had almost an hour before having to get ready to take the bus that would carry him to the other side of the city, to the place where _Devil May Cry_ office was. So, after washing the dishes carefully, Nero returned briefly to his room to gather a folder so full that it was a miracle that it hadn’t broken yet.

Nero half lied on the sofa with his legs crossed and extended to be able to lean the folder on his thighs. He had its content practically memorized, since it consisted of all the news and articles of _Devil May Cry_ that he had been gathering since the group’s starts in 2009, but still Nero thought it wouldn’t hurt to review all that information, considering that he was going to work closely with them from then on.

Damn, Nero thought with an incredulous smile, he hadn’t assimilated it yet.

As it usually happened when doing something he liked, Nero wasn’t aware of how much time he had spent reading until he heard the door of V’s room opening. He raised his face from his folder just when his roommate appeared on the living room, with Griffon posed on his right arm and carrying a half asleep Shadow with the other.

“Morning.”

Nero was about to laugh when V jolted startled after hearing his greeting, causing Griffon to caw a little in protest before flying to pose on one of the chairs of the living room.

“You have woken up first? I must still be dreaming”

Nero snorted while V deposited Shadow on the cushion he and Nero had prepared for the baby panther, although it seemed to be as useless as Griffon’s tree because the panther had slept those two nights in V’s bed, and probably he would keep doing so as far as V didn’t protest too much.

When V disappeared inside the kitchen Nero got ready to hear his complains, but surprisingly V simply appeared five minutes later with a single cup of coffee and didn’t say anything while sitting at the living room table, where Nero had sat an hour ago.

“Don’t worry, Nero”, V said with amusement when noticing this one looking inquisitively at him, “for once I’m not going to protest for your demonic appetite.”

Nero looked at V in disbelief.

“Damn, I think I’m the one dreaming.”

V rolled his eyes and after taking a sip of his coffee he looked back at Nero.

“Nervous?”

“Nah”, V looked at him skeptically so Nero deduced he hadn’t sounded too convincing, “okay, yeah, a little. But the good news is that I can’t cause a worst impression than yesterday.”

“I agree. And as far as you don't sing anymore you will be fine.”

“Oh, please, shut it. It was the most awkward moment of my life.”

“But you realize that you didn’t need to do so, right? You could have simply told them about your purpose before beginning to sing--”

“ _I wasn’t thinking straight, okay?!_ Fuck, you should have seen the way Vergil was glaring at me. He would have killed me in case of not singing.”

“I’m still surprised he didn’t after listening to you.”

Nero showed V his middle finger and V simply answered raising his cup towards him, causing Nero to snort again with resignation. At that moment the alarm of Nero's mobile began to sound, announcing it was 7.45.

“Okay, I should begin getting ready. Wish me luck.”

Nero stood up from the sofa and after rubbing Shadow’s head softly causing the animal to purr in his sleep he was about to go towards his room when V spoke.

“I don’t think you need it. You are pretty good at doing your thing.”

Nero turned around slowly, blinking while looking at V.

“V, are you sure you are okay this morning?”

“Oh, I am”, V smiled obligingly at him, “didn’t you know that pious lies are excellent to make people feel at ease?”

Nero rolled his eyes while shaking his head, but despite V’s incapacity of cheering someone up in a normal way their brief interaction had helped Nero to feel a little less nervous.

For the first time in a rather long time Nero actually spent some minutes deciding what to wear, although the fact that it was close to the end of the week meant that most part of Nero’s clothes were in the laundry bag, leaving him with not many choices. Eventually he went for the jeans that were in better shape, a pair of militar boots and a red and pretty worn out sweater over a simple grey t-shirt. The sweater had definitely seen better days but Nero was fond of it, since he had brought it in almost all the concerts he had attended, so as long as he could still dress with it he didn’t plan to retire it from his wardrobe.

With a last look at the mirror Nero grabbed his coat and bag and with a loud ‘ _See you later_ ’ addressed to V who was inside the kitchen he left the apartment in the direction of the bus stop.

Even if Nero didn’t wait more than other days for him it felt as if the bus had been excessively slow. After roughly 40 minutes he stepped out of it and walked during another 10 before stopping in front of the address, that resulted to be a rather old-looking antique shop.

For a moment Nero thought that he was in the wrong place, and was about to check his mobile when he pinpointed someone familiar coming from the other side of the street. He suppressed a smile. It seemed that his intuition the other day had been correct, because the person whose face illuminated when seeing him was no one else than Nico.

“Hey!”, she waved her hand towards him in a rather exaggerated gesture, beginning to talk when she was still a little far away, “thank goodness, I thought I was in the wrong place.”

“Same here”, Nero admitted when Nico reached him, “congratulations for the vocalist position.”

The woman’s smile managed to grow even more.

“Thanks! God, the wait yesterday almost killed me because they didn’t call me until 10 p.m. to confirm me I’d been selected. And today I’ve barely slept because, you know, I’M THE NEW FUCKING VOCALIST OF _DEVIL MAY CRY_ AND I CAN’T BELIEVE IT YET!”, after Nero almost got deaf when Nico shouted with enthusiasm, the woman snapped a hand against her mouth, “SHIT, I shouldn’t be shouting something like that! This place’s supposedly secret!"

“Do you mean _was_?”

It took Nico a moment to realize Nero was teasing her, and when she did it was to punch him playfully on the arm, with way more force than she seemed to have.

“Oh, by the way, congratulations for the new job too! On the phone they told me someone else would come to sign the contract too but I didn’t remember any Nero from the audition, even if we talked”, Nico laughed with certain embarrassment, “sorry, I was like super nervous at the moment and except when I sang some parts of yesterday are a little blurry.”

“It’s okay”, Nero made a dismissive gesture with his hand, “I’m just glad you left before listening to me because you would have probably remembered that horror.”

“Come on, it couldn’t be that bad!”

“Nope, I’m pretty sure it was.”

“Then that means that you suffered Vergil’s Sexy Glare? ‘Cause I know some people that would kill to suffer it in their skins.”

“Don’t know if it was sexy but definitely it was uncomfortable as hell.”

“Oh, man, I’d have loved to witness it!”

Unlike the previous wait, time flew pretty fast while talking to Nico, since their conversation soon diverted to the concerts they had attended and their favorite songs. Nero learned that Nico and him had been in practically the same concerts and he thought it was a pity they hadn’t met sooner, because even if V had (reluctantly) agreed on accompanying him to some of the concerts it wasn’t the same than going with someone that shared your enthusiasm, and, as crazy as Nico was, she looked like someone who was really funny to hang out with.

“So, now that you know them personally, which member do you like the most?”, Nico asked expectantly, “Trish was so damn nice in the audition but I think that my heart still belongs to Lady. She is super teasing but cool. I guess it’s not Vergil in your case.”

Nero chuckled, feeling a little nervous all of sudden to answer the question even if there wasn’t the least reason for it. They were just talking about which member they liked as _artists_ , not as anything more. And even if Nico asked about him liking _liking_ a member of the band the answer was clearly no, so he could perfectly answer at ease.

However, instead of an answer it was a curse what escaped from Nero’s mouth while Nico exhaled a loud ‘ _Holy Jesus_ ’ when suddenly the door of the office opened and Morrison appeared at the frame, looking at them with surprise before smiling.

“Oh, you are both here already”, the man said while Nero and Nico were still recovering from the scare, “please, enter.”

Nero entered the shop after Nico, following Morrison inside after the man closed the door once again. If the shop was just a cover it was extremely well done because multiple shelves and glass showcases full of realistic antiques surrounded the room.

“Sorry, Trish told me you would arrive around 9 so I didn’t check before”, Morrison sat behind a wooden, old desk and gestured Nero and Nico to do the same in front of him, “didn’t she tell you I’m always here at 8?”

“Uhm, yup, but as stupid as it sounds it didn’t occur us to knock.”

Morrison chuckled when hearing Nico’s sincere comment. He grabbed a folder from his desk and opened it, noticing at that moment the way Nero was still looking around unable to hide his curiosity.

“Everything is on sale, if you are interested”, Nero’s attention came back to Morrison when the man talked, “most part of the goods are rather expensive but there are some articles with more normal prices.”

“So _Devil May Cry_ owns this shop?”

Nero’s confused question made Morrison chuckle again. The man shook his head negatively before offering respective contracts to them.

“More or less. They bought the place due to its characteristics but I was the one who decided to give this cover an use. I’ve been collecting all these things for almost 50 years and I thought it was a pity to let them  _collect_ dust in my attic, pun very much intended.”

“And no one has ever recognized you?”, Nero asked again, while Nico exhaled an honest laugh when hearing the pretty bad joke.

“Oh, I’m not the one attending it. My good friend Matier is in charge of that. I provide the goods and she is the one who sells them.”

Nero nodded finally satisfied. That had more sense because Morrison was pretty famous. He had been wirkinw as an agent of many other important groups before working with _Devil May Cry_ so, even if you weren’t much into music, the possibilities of recognizing the man if he worked as a shopkeeper were pretty high.

During the following minutes Morrison explained the terms and conditions of their contract, and Nero made Morrison suffer a laughing attack when he innocently commented that there surely was a wrong extra 0 in his salary. It took Nero’s eyes a while to stop being about to pop out their sockets when Morrison assured him there wasn’t any mistake, which made Nero begin to panic internally because if he was being _that well_ paid it meant that the group’s expectations were pretty high. Almost too much high. Shit, maybe he had sold himself way better than he should during the audition?

Nero was still staring at the contract with a dumbfounded expression when the door of the shop opened, causing Nero to immediately look behind him in time to see Vergil entering, clothes and hair impeccable as always.

“Good morning, Morrison”, he greeted without removing the long, dark blue coat he was wearing, his clear blue eyes stopping way too briefly on Nero before focusing on Nico, “have you already signed the contract?”

“Y-Yep, just did it”, Nico said a little nervously, showing the recently signed paper to Vergil with a proud smile.

“Good”, Vergil addressed Morrison next, “I talked to Trish and Lady and they should be arriving soon. Of course I can’t say the same about my brother. If they need anything I will be in my room.”

Without sparing any other glance towards Nero, Vergil disappeared through the back door. When the door was closed again and some good seconds had passed since then, Nico whistled, breaking the brief silence that had settled in.

“Dude, he is really intense”, she exhaled, causing Morrison to nod with patience.

“He still has to get used to you two. He would kill me if he heard me say this but…”, Morrison lowered his tone, “...think about him like a really grumpy cat with trusting issues. It helps.”

Nero and Nico exhaled respective laughs, which caused Morrison to hush at them before checking the door was still closed and there was no risk of Vergil having listened to him. Well, Nero thought with irony, the good news was that Vergil wasn’t glaring at him anymore, although the fact that he had practically ignored him as if he wasn’t even there was probably even worse. Surely the man wasn’t convinced yet about his value for the band, but that fact that may have discouraged some people just fostered Nero’s competitive nature to prove the bassist wrong even more. Not because Nero seeked his approbation, but because he would love to see Vergil be at a loss of words like when he began to talk about the band’s accidents.

After a couple of more questions Nero had just finished signing the contract when the door opened a second time and two familiar female voices began to sound, causing Nico to tense in her seat while murmuring rapid: ‘ _Oh my god, oh my god_ ’. Damn, Nero really hoped not to be that obviously nervous around Dan- _Devil May Cry_ band.

“Morning!”, both Lady and Trish greeted everyone, way more cheerily than Vergil. Nero simply moved his head a little in their direction as a silent hello while Nico managed not to hyperventilate to answer with a stuttering ‘ _Y-Yo!_ ’.

“Oh, you have signed already?”, Lady leaned her elbows on Nero and Nico’s shoulder respectively and leaned forward to look at their contracts, “nice!”

“I guess Vergil hasn’t shown them around”, when Morrison shook his head Trish simply exhaled a soft, resigned sigh and removed her coat before looking at Nero and Nico with a smile, “come on. Now that you are officially part of the group let me show you where you are going to work from now on”

Of course, Nero and Nico didn’t have to be told twice to follow Trish and Lady through the back door.

* * *

Nero didn’t know what he was expecting when Trish and Lady lead them down some narrow stairs that ended in a new door, but definitely it wasn’t that gigantic warehouse with a damn stage mounted in the middle. Nero made a quick estimation and concluded that that room was easily four times his apartment. Despite being one level underground the place was very bright thanks to the multiple windows situated really close to the ceiling. Besides the stage, in the right side of the warehouse there was a ramp ending in a garage door, while in the left side there was a [photoshoot area](http://dateboxsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/photoshoot.jpg). Scattered around the whole place there were also some carts and stage related stuff, such as a ladder, metallic bars, spotlights and many other things.

“Sorry for the disorder”, Trish apologized while Nero and Nico looked around still not believing where they were, “we haven’t had time to put some order since the last concert. I promise that the other rooms are way more acceptable”

Nero forced himself to at least close his mouth while following Trish and Lady towards the back of the room, through some double doors leading to a small corridor where music coming from a bass could be heard, which made him deduce that Vergil was practicing.

The two small rooms on the left side of it corresponded to the toilets, while the room on the right was a whole [recording studio](http://www.thejoint.org.uk/upload/images/sound/soundstage.jpg) that caused Nico to exhale a loud ‘ _Hoooly shit_ ’ that Nero internally secunded.

“Yes, that is going to be your main workspace”, Lady casually enclosed an arm around Nico’s neck, causing the younger woman to gulp for the sudden contact, “cool, right?”

While Nero wondered where he would be working exactly, they exited the room to reach the end of the corridor.

“That room in the right side is the changing room where we keep the costumes and clothes we use during our concerts. And these rooms…”, Trish signaled the five similar doors situated on the wall perpendicular to them, “...are our private rooms. Since this place is pretty far away from our homes we have them in case some days we end working until late, in order to spend the night. The first three rooms are Lady’s, mine, and the one who belonged first to Lucia, then to Patty and that now will belong to Nico. Dante’s is just next to the changing room and between Dante’s and Nico’s there is…”

“...Vergil’s!”

Lady surprised everyone by suddenly opening the fourth room, causing the music that had been sounding up till then to stop abruptly.

“Lady, what do you want?”

Nero honestly admired the keyboards player when she didn’t flinch at all with Vergil’s cold and obviously annoyed voice.

“We are making a tour! So would you mind to show your room to the newbie--”

Nero couldn’t entirely blame Vergil when this one snapped the door closed in front of Lady’s face without bothering to say anything else, causing this one to exhale a resigned sigh.

“I guess that’s a no.”

Trish exhaled a patient sigh.

“I hope you don’t go after me later protesting because he is mean to you, because this time you’ll deserve it.”

Trish sounded like a mother reproaching her daughter for having teased her brother too much, which made Lady bat her eyelashes exaggeratedly at her with such fake innocence that Trish exhaled another sigh.

“Where were we…? Oh, yes: the rooms”, Trish looked at Nero apologetically, “now that you are here we have one room missing, but don’t worry: we will arrange it today.”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to--”

“Yes, we have to”, Lady interrupted Nero’s protest by placing a hand against his mouth briefly, effectively making him shut up, “you aren’t going to be the only one without a room so we’ll probably move the changing room location to the main place. It would be a good way to finally put some order inside there.”

“I agree”, Trish said before signaling the door opposite to the changing room, situated on the left side, “and finally that is the ‘dining room’, although to be honest we end having lunch everywhere but there.”

“Except in Vergil’s room”, Lady completed, “as you have seen, no one is allowed into Vergil’s room.”

“And I also recommend not to enter in Dante’s room under any circumstances, unless you want to get lost and never come back.”

“Yep, you never know what you can find inside there. Remember when we found a naked woman, Trish?”

“You have to be more specific, dear. _That_ happened more than once.”

Nero didn’t know why the hell he felt annoyed when hearing such a story instead of laughing like Nico did. Dante’s reputation with ladies was widely known and the man didn’t even try to hide it, so probably Nero was just feeling that way because it had been months since the last time he 'got some action', so to speak.

Yes, that was surely the only reason.

At that moment a beeping sound was heard from the main room that made Trish and Lady interchange a look.

“Well, speaking of the devil…”, Lady smiled, “...it seemed he has just arrived.”

Nero pretended that his heart hadn’t skipped a beat when hearing Lady, and also decided to ignore the way his hands began to sweat lightly while following Trish and Lady back to the main room, at the precise moment in which Dante was entering the warehouse via the garage ramp, while slowly riding a really cool looking motorbike.

“Dante, what have we talked about driving without a helmet?”, Trish crossed her arms while Dante dismounted from the vehicle, approaching the frowning blonde next with his usual nonchalance.

“I know, sorry”, Dante joined his hands briefly in an apologetic gesture, “but I didn’t stop by home last night so I haven’t been able to take it.”

“Yes, I can say”, Trish grabbed Dante’s chin with her hand to turn his head to one side, leaving in display a rather obvious hickey in the guitarist’s neck, “let me guess: the brunette journalist from yesterday?”

“Nope, the redhead.”

“Told you”, Lady said in a lilting tone from behind Trish, and that was when Dante finally noticed Nero and Nico’s presence.

“Hey, you are here already!”

Nero surprised himself tempted to say that unlike others there were people who actually arrived in time instead of fooling around. Damn, he really had to get a hold on himself. Dante had all the right to fool around and he had zero motives to feel bitter about it. Definitely having woken up sooner than usual was affecting him in really weird ways.

“Yes, they’ve been here for a while”, Lady intervened then, sneaking behind Nero without this one noticing it, “aaand we have a lot to do today so…”

Lady suddenly pushed Nero towards Dante, causing him to be about to fall against the guitarist if he hadn’t recovered his step fortunately in time.

“...he’s all yours”, Lady took then Nico’s wrist, causing her to hold her breath, “meanwhile Trish and I will fill Nico in about the next schedules and the new versions of the songs we have to begin to record, so see you later guys!”

“Don’t let Dante exploit you”, Trish told Nero with a serious tone, “if he tries to do so, warn me immediately.”

“Come on, don’t go ruining my reputation like that!”

“You don’t need help for that, hon.”

Trish smiled charmingly at Dante before following Lady and Nico, causing the guitarist to huff before turning to Nero, who had taken a prudent step backwards not to be too close to him.

“Well, kid, I guess you’re under my care now.”

Nero didn’t know if it was Dante’s smile or his words but he felt his stomach clenching a little. He internally hoped it was just hunger. Considering the breakfast he had had it was rather unlikely, but the last thing he wanted was to think too thoroughly about it so he simply decided to ignore those stupid unfounded reactions.  

“So, what do I have to do?”, well, at least his voice sounded normal.

Dante chuckled when hearing his comment.

“Straight to the point. I like that.”

Was it his brain being dumber than usual or everything what Dante said seemed to hold a sexual innuendo?

“I think we will begin with the costumes then”, Dante began to walk as he spoke and Nero did the same, situating next to the guitarist, “I presume the ladies have shown you the place?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s cool, right?”, a smile escaped Nero when hearing Dante’s enthusiastic tone, “it took me a while to convince the others to buy it but, even if they’ll never admit it, I know they love it too now.”

“Why didn’t they want this place?”, Nero asked with curiosity, while Dante kept the double doors open so that Nero entered after him.

“The typical excuses, you know: too far away, too expensive, way too big…”, Nero didn’t say anything but he thought they were pretty reasonable arguments, and Dante seemed to read it in his face because he continued, “yeah, maybe they weren’t entirely wrong _but_ being far away guarantees discretion. Also, it may be expensive but cash is not a problem for now. And, of course, everyone knows that the bigger the better.”

Nero didn’t dare to look at Dante when this one said the last sentence, pretending that the floor was infinitely more interesting to see until they reached the changing room.

“Well...”, Dante grabbed the door’s handle and with a theatrical gesture he opened at the same time that he turned the lights on, “...here we are.”

Lady hadn’t lied when saying that it was necessary to put some order in the room, but Nero didn’t pay attention to it. He was busy preventing his jaw from hitting the floor when seeing several coat hangers full of costumes that he immediately recognized.

“ _Wow._ ”

Without waiting for a more direct invitation Nero immediately stepped inside, going straight to the most far away hanger.

“I remember these!”, Nero exclaimed, signaling the clothes but without touching them, “they are the first demon costumes you and Vergil wore in the concert of February 2012”, Nero looked at his right and smiled widely, approaching a new hanger, “and those are the vampire attires you exclusively used in 2013, during Halloween.”

“Yes, they are”, Dante confirmed, crossing his arms while leaning against the door frame, observing Nero with amusement, “we were planning to do something similar this Halloween too, since it had a lot of success back then.”

“Yeah, it was awesome”, Nero said sincerely, still staring at the costumes, “man, I was so angry for missing it. But...”, Nero turned to look at Dante, “...at the time it was too far away and expensive so I couldn’t.”

Dante smiled, realizing what Nero had done there.

“Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore, since you are stuck with us now.”

Nero smiled, not bothering to hide he liked how that sounded. He also discovered that his previous nervousness seemed completely gone while talking to Dante, which was honestly a relief.

“So…”, Dante approached another of the hangers and grabbed the last version of his demonic costume, “...yesterday you said you had a couple of ideas of how to improve this?”

“Yes”, Nero said with conviction while Dante placed the costume on a big table situated next to the wall, “if I’m not mistaken you used leather in order to create the demon’s skin and also the wings, to give them a sturdy aspect. Uhm…”, Nero looked at Dante hesitantly, “...can I touch it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Dante took a couple of steps back to leave Nero more room to work. This one observed how the suit was done with a serious, concentrated expression for almost a minute before finally looking at Dante.

“You have to be pretty hot with this.”

The words escaped Nero’s mouth before noticing that their meaning was horribly ambiguous, and for the way Dante smirked it was evident what the man was thinking.

“I-I didn’t mean it that way”, Nero snapped, not wanting to give Dante time to reply, “what I wanted to say was--”

“Easy, kid”, Dante said with a chuckle, “I get what you meant and yeah, after an hour or wearing that suit it begins to feel way too hot.”

Nero nodded, grateful that Dante decided to let his mistake pass...

“...but just for the record there wouldn’t have been anything wrong with calling me hot. That’d mean you have good taste.”

Nero met Dante’s eyes in time to see the man goofily winking at him, which caused him to snort to hide his light embarrassment. He wondered how many ladies had fallen for that wink, but Dante would have to do some more so that he fell for him...and okaaay, time to stop that train of thoughts right there because Nero didn’t like where it was going.

“I could do a more lighter version of the wings”, Nero said, talking more to himself, “that way they wouldn’t be too heavy to wear, and the probabilities of breaking for too much weight would also reduce. Also, if they are lighter maybe I can even make them move.”

Dante’s eyes opened more.

“Really?”

“Yes, there are mechanisms that allow to do it. Several cosplayers create them on their own and I could do something similar. It will be a little complicated because we are working with four wings instead of the standard two, but I think it’s possible”, Nero looked at Dante again, “I could begin to work on an initial prototype, but if you prefer me to do something else instead--”

“Something else that doing _mobile wings_? Hell no”, Nero was about to laugh when Dante sounded almost offended by the idea, “what do you need to begin to work?”

Nero thought for a moment before beginning to list the materials. Dante listened to him in silence, occasionally nodding.

“Okay, I think we have all that, but we should ask Trish since she is the most organized around. Anything else?”

After some seconds Nero talked again, this time thinking his words carefully before speaking them.

“Well, to create the prototype it would help if you wore the wings for a moment, to know the correct measurements.”

Yep, Nero thought, definitely it sounded much better than the ‘ _I’d like to know your measures_ ’ that would have surely escaped his mouth otherwise.

“Sure”, Nero frowned with confusion when Dante crossed his arms in front of his chest, “let’s get to work.”

Nero’s brain short circuited when, without any proper warning, Dante suddenly removed his t-shirt in a too smooth, fluid movement that made Nero’s throat end completely dry. All the doubts Nero could have harbored up till then about magazines using extra Photoshop retouches on Dante’s pictures vanished at once, because definitely _those_ pectorals and _that_ six pack that could easily make a guy in his twenties jealous were undeniably real.

“Can you help me with this?”, Dante asked taking the wings, completely unaware of the effect he was having on Nero, “it’s a little difficult to do it alone.”

Nero simply nodded, not trusting his voice and suppressing the urge of clearing his throat while circling Dante to help him wear the wings…

...and _holy shit_ , thank goodness Dante couldn’t see the way Nero bit his lower lip while staring at Dante’s broad, sculpted back. However, there was something that prevented Nero from having a rather awkward problem in his lower half, and it was the nails scratches, already fading but still visible, that covered Dante’s skin, product of the guitarist’s more than probable passionate night, and that caused Nero to feel an unpleasant feeling settling in his stomach.

Nero focused again when Dante passed an arm through one of the handles of the wings and was quick enough to help the guitarist to wear the wings as if they were a rather flamboyant backpack.

After exhaling a subtle sigh Nero situated again in front of Dante, managing to adopt an (he hoped) acceptable professional expression while observing the half-naked guitarist, even if his heart was loudly hammering against his chest .

“Okay…”, Nero grabbed the measuring tape he had seen on the table before, and while making sure not to touch Dante directly he took some measures across Dante’s chest and shoulders.

“Don’t you need to take notes of something?”, Dante asked confused when Nero used the tape for fourth time, mumbling lightly to himself.

“I have a pretty good memory”, Nero simply said, circling Dante again, “but I will leave them noted later, in case it can be useful to you too.”

Nero was about to tell Dante he could remove the wings already when the door of the changing room opened and Lady began to talk even before having entered.

“Dante, can you come for bit? We need your opinion to know which songs we’ll record fir--”, Lady shut up when seeing Dante before adopting a teasing tone, “you can’t keep your t-shirt on for even five minutes, can you?”

“Hey, you know these wings are damn tight and can’t be worn with clothes!”

“Mmm, if you say so... _show off._ ”

Lady giggled mischievously before closing the door behind her, causing Dante to exhale a resigned sigh.

“Sorry, kid, I need to go now”, with Nero’s help Dante removed the wings and rapidly put his t-shirt on again, turning towards Nero after that, “will you be good on your own? I don’t think it takes us much so I’ll pass by later, okay?”

“Sure”, Nero said simply, which made Dante smile gratefully at him and palm his arm briefly before abandoning the room.

After Nero heard the door of the recording studio closing he exhaled a long breath before exiting the room as well. He walked towards the men bathroom and once inside he opened the sink to splash a good amount of cold water on his face.

Okay, _that_ had to stop.

It was evident that he was more sexually frustrated than he thought he was, because otherwise what the hell had just happened in the changing room? For goodness sake, Dante had just removed his shirt! And in a completely normal way, so why had he reacted so damn exaggeratedly? At this rate he would be fired for being a fucking creep unable to react normally around a good looking guy, and he wouldn’t have any right to complain in case that happened.

Nero splashed water on his face again, looking at himself in the mirror before exhaling a deep breath.

Damn, what the hell was happening to him?

“Kid?”

Nero was surprised when hearing Dante’s voice coming from the corridor. He looked at himself in the mirror again and after gulping he pointed at his reflexion with a threatening expression while saying a soundless ‘ _Don’t fucking screw it_ ’.

He waited some prudent seconds until having completely calmed before stepping out the toilet, in time to see Dante with a confused expression, clearly searching for him.

“Oh, there you are”, Dante offered him an apologetic smile, “at the end the guys want to hold a meeting after deciding the songs so we are going to be busy almost all the morning.”

“It’s okay”, Nero said, “I have all I need to begin to sketch the prototype so--”

“So nothing, kid”, Dante surprised Nero by taking his arm to lead him inside the recording room, “we need your help too with this, so we’ll begin with the Cool Wings Project after this. Relax, we aren’t going to make you sing again.”

Nero managed to stop Dante from pushing him inside the recording studio, remaining just in front of the door with the guitarist in front of him.

“But I don’t understand. Why do you need me there?”

“Because…”, Dante placed a hand on Nero’s shoulder, “...singing or not, as I said yesterday you are part of _Devil May Cry_ too, and consequently you have the right of discussing and talking about the next steps that the band will take.”

Nero looked at Dante with his mouth half-opened.

When he was hired by _Devil May Cry_ he had assumed that his work would exclusively consist of fixing the problems they may have, but he didn’t know he would take an active role in the band’s’ plans, so it was a surprise. A _really_ nice one.

“But wait, Vergil is fine with this?”

“Weeell, he is a little reluctant”, Dante admitted, “but I told him I vouched for you and, a little less reluctantly, he accepted”

Nero’s heart skipped a bit.

“You do?”

Dante snorted.

“Of course! Otherwise I wouldn’t have even suggested to hire you, don’t you think?”

The guitarist actually had a point, but still Nero couldn’t help to ask something that had rounded his head before.

“And how do you know I’m not just pretending to know what I’m doing? That I’m not a phony?”

“Easy”, the guitarist extended his arms on either side of his body and pointed at himself with his thumbs, while smiling with confidence, “because I have one hell of an intuition and until now it has never failed me.”

Nero couldn’t suppress a laugh when hearing the argument.

“Well, thanks I guess.”

Dante winked at him.

“So, now that everything's clear, stop protesting so much and go inside, kid”, Dante patted his shoulder twice before opening the door, “we have a lot do do.”

Nero hesitated for a moment but eventually decided to do something about _that_ other thing that had been bothering for a while.

“Okay. _Old man._ ”

The way Dante stopped in his tracks before slowly turning to look at Nero with half-closed eyes was priceless to see. Without averting his eyes from the guitarist’s ones Nero crossed his arms and raised his chin towards Dante, the challenging action causing Dante to tilt his head to the side in a defeated way while raising both of his hands in a defensive gesture.

“Okay okay, understood... _brat._ ”

It was Nero’s turn to half-glare at Dante, which caused the guitarist to chuckle before smiling.

“It’s a joke. Please, come inside... _Nero._ ”

Nero suppressed a sigh and returned the smile, nodding approvingly, and while following Dante inside the room he, finally, acknowledged something he had been suspecting since the previous day when personally meeting the band. Something that he had avoided to admit until that same moment, when hearing Dante call him by his name for the first time in that jokingly seductive tone.

That he, Nero, couldn’t keep denying anymore to have a fucking crush on Dante, the main guitarist of _Devil May Cry_.

And that he really hoped to be able to hide that fact well enough, because when Nero entered the studio and was greeted by Trish, Lady and Nico while Vergil looked at him still with a little of suspicion, Nero already knew without any doubt that it would be impossible to find another job that could compare to that, so like hell if he was going to ruin it just because a damn crush.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand finally our precious Nero knows he has a crush :DDD Poor thing, he is going to suffer a little for how oblivious Dante is going to be hehehehe But everything will end well for them <3
> 
> Also don't know if I will be able to keep updating so fast but even if some chapters may be slow to come don't worry because I won't leave this story unfinished :))
> 
> Hope you have enjoyed the chapter! <3 ^^


	4. Fashion parade

When Nero arrived home that night it was already past 9 p.m. The lack of sleep of the previous night together with the tension and excitation that he had experienced during the whole day were finally showing, so a small part of him just wanted to lie down on his bed until the next morning. However, his necessity of telling V how his first day had been was clearing winning over his need to rest, and Nero found himself climbing the last set of stairs two at a time before rapidly opening the door of his apartment

“Sorry, I’m late.”

Nero’s loud, cheery tone clearly contrasted with the apology. He rapidly circled the sofa hoping to find V reading there as always, but to his surprise it was empty. In fact, there was no sign of Griffon or Shadow either.

“V?”, Nero called with a frown, but his confusion lasted just a few seconds because at that moment he heard a splash coming from the bathroom, followed by a caw, a loud, irritated meaw and an unexpected curse that caused Nero to smirk briefly before approaching the bathroom.

He was already expecting the scene he saw after opening the door, but still the sight of an almost completely drenched V kneeling on the floor next to the now half-empty bathtub and struggling to wash a furious Shadow was really funny to see.

“Having fun?”

The way V turned his head to glare at him just made Nero want to laugh even more, specially because V’s hair was completely damp and the sudden movement caused some drops of water to fall onto Griffon, making the animal caw again in protest from the sink were he had been observing his owner’s suffering.

“Yes, the time of my life” V said sarcastically, cursing again when Shadow’s brusque movements provoked that more water splashed against him.

Definitely rolling up his sleeves to try to prevent his t-shirt from ending wet hadn’t been V’s cleverest move, Nero thought while looking at the fresh scratches of V’s tattooed arms.

“Damn, the neighbors are going to think we are torturing him or something- _hey hey hey_ , where do you think you are going?”

Nero rapidly knelt next to V at the precise moment in which Shadow was about to successfully leave the bathtub in his fight to escape his fate of being cleaned. Nero managed to block the panther’s escape route in time, causing the animal to huff at him angrily.

“Good. Keep him distracted”, V said with relief, rapidly pouring some gel on his hands and applying it to Shadow’s spiked hair while it was Nero’s turn to avoid Shadow’s attacks.

“Shit, do it faster”, Nero exclaimed when Shadow added bites to his combo list.

“Done”, V finally announced after another stressing minute, “pass me that towel, quickly.”

For once Nero didn’t even complain for V’s commanding tone, doing as indicated so that V could rapidly envelop the towel around the annoyed panther.

Nero exhaled a sigh and sat with his legs flexed against the bathtub while V took Shadow out the bathtub while hushing softly at him. The panther’s irritated mews and huffs turned gradually into purrs when V sat next to Nero with his legs crossed and settled the animal over them, in order to ruffle the towel against the panther’s body in a rhythmic way that caused the panther’s eyes to almost close completely.

“Damn bastard, he is all calm now”, Nero said with a smile, rubbing Shadow’s chin and causing the animal to purr even louder, “you’re welcome by the way.”

“Why? I had everything under control.”

Nero looked at V with a deadpan expression, staring at V’s drenched persona.

“Yep, it’s evident by looking at you.”

At least V had the decency of chuckling when hearing Nero’s ironic tone before standing up, offering Nero a hand to help him do the same.

After they both cleaned the bathroom the best they could Nero ordered something to eat while V changed into some dry clothes, being both too tired to cook something.

Nero sat on the sofa after hanging up, and he realized he had dozen off without noticing because the next time he opened his eyes Shadow was somehow sleeping curling next to him, the Chinese food he had ordered was already placed on the small table in front of him, and V was with his legs crossed on the other side of the sofa and typing something on his laptop.

“So…”, V said, looking at Nero with amusement over the screen, “...an intense day?”

Nero rubbed his eyes and nodded with a smile, reaching for his take out box and the chopsticks to begin to devour its content. He was hungrier than he thought.

It took him almost half-an-hour to explain his whole day to V, while leaving the sofa full of crumbs since he didn’t stop eating while narrating the story. Nero told V about the ‘ _fucking cool place_ ’ where _Devil May Cry_ worked, about the ‘Cool Wings Project’ (V obviously pointed out the excess of use of the word ‘cool’ but Nero simply ignored him and continued), and that he had been able to watch the process of recording some old themes with Nico and that it had been really coo- _awesome_.

After that, Vergil had been about to kill Dante because the last had forgotten that they both had an interview that same afternoon, and also for suggesting to attend it with the same clothes than the previous day. Vergil’s glare was enough to convince Dante about passing by home to get more presentable and the guitarist left in his motorbike without even eating, while Vergil took his leave in a more calm way. Meanwhile, Nero had lunch with Nico, Lady and Trish.

Lady commented a teasing ‘ _So lucky! All surrounded by women_ ’, not knowing yet that Nero’s preferences were a little different, and after that the rest of the afternoon was way more boring, since they focused on emptying the changing room in order to be able to arrange Nero’s room the next day. Lady initially was against it, saying that they could wait until the twins were around to have some extra hands, but Trish strongly rejected the proposal, arguing that Dante always got too distracted and was a hinder more than a help, and that even if Vergil was more efficient he would be complaining for ‘ _being wasting time with the newbie’s room_ ’ and that she preferred to be working slower but in peace. Lady also strongly agreed on that last point.

“And that’s more or less all”, Nero frowned when he finished speaking and V immediately shook his head negatively, “no what?”

“Come on, Nero”, V talked as if he was speaking to a small kid that had tried to trick him without result, “be a good boy and tell me what you are not telling me.”

Nero managed to suppress a gulp and adopt a outraged tone for having been reasonably doubted at.

“What the-I’ve told you everything!”

“Really?”, V leaned his elbow on the back of the sofa and began to tap rhythmically on the sofa cover with his index finger, purposely making Nero nervous, “do you really want me to believe that _nothing_ happened with your crush?”

“No!”

“Nothing at all?”

“ _Nothing_ at all.”

“You’re clearly lying.”

Nero huffed when hearing V’s triumphant tone.

“And why the hell do you think that?”

V grinned.

“Because it’s the first time you haven’t adamantly denied that you _do_ have a crush.”

Nero stopped in the middle of opening his mouth to reply. He closed his mouth, opened it again, and then exhaled a defeated groan before dropping back against the sofa, covering his eyes with the back of his hand.

“And that means that something _did_ happen.”

“I really hate you, you know?”

“Whatever it makes you feel better, Nero, but start to talk”

“Aaaargh, _fine,_ you win. _”_

“I always do.”

After managing to suppress his initial desire of strangling V, Nero exhaled a long sigh and let the hand that was covering his eyes fall onto the sofa seats, which startled Shadow and forced Nero to rub the panther’s back so that this one stopped meowing in protest.

“You are going to be disappointed because not much happened.”

“Maybe, but we have passed from ‘nothing’ to ‘not much’. It’s a matter of time that the quantity keeps growing.”

“Fuck, you are _so_ exasperating”, Nero sighed again, “okay, so long story short--”

“Don’t you dare to summarize after spending 15 minutes talking about something as irrelevant as putting order in a changing room.”

This time Nero really looked about to kill at V because this one rolled his eyes and obligingly gestured at Nero with his hand, indicating him that he would let him proceed as he wished. For now.

Even if Nero began to talk a little reluctantly, one of the reasons why he always ended venting with V about everything, including his romantic life, was that as much irritating as the poet could be, he knew when to reduce the level of teasing and simply listening to him, and in this case that’s what he practically did without interrupting him.

 _Practically_.

“So you are saying you called him hot by accident?”

“I didn’t mean to! And it’s not my fault that he interpreted it that way!”

Nope, certainly Nero couldn’t blame V when this one pinched the bridge of his own nose while laughing in a mix of amusement and embarrassment.

After that, Nero rambled for a good while about how Dante looked without a t-shirt, and also about how coo- _nice_ it was that the guitarist talked normally to him and joked without having any superstar attitude, and that treated him like a professional despite he was considerably younger and despite having called him ‘kid’ until Nero played the ‘old man’ card...and of course, about how damn _frustrating_ it was Dante’s success with the ladies.

“So do you think he’s straight?”, V inquired, causing Nero to shrug.

“I don’t know but I have never read any news of him going out with men. But with women…”, Nero huffed, “...I could fill another folder with all his damn affairs.”

V nodded to himself slowly.

“Well, I guess you know what’s the next step then.”

Nero snorted.

“Yes, as if it was that easy to ask such a thing.”

“I’m not saying that you ask him directly, you fool”, V said with a patient tone, “but there are other ways to know.”

“Oh, yeah? Like what?”

“For example, the next time that he uses one of his innuendos with you, instead of remaining quiet and blushing, answer to it”

“Hey, I don’t blush that easily.”

“If you say so”, V ignored Nero’s offended expression and continued as if Nero hadn’t talked at all, “by doing that you will be able to test the waters. And if the reaction is not what you were expecting, you can always pretend you were joking back.”

Nero averted his eyes, thinking. Actually, it wasn’t such a bad idea, but now he had to have the guts to actually doing it, because even if normally Nero didn’t have much problem in showing his interest with someone he liked, this time it was different since Dante wasn’t just someone he had been admiring for years, but also someone with whom he worked now, so he had to be careful not to cause a situation that could end being too uncomfortable.

He was still thinking about the pros and cons of V’s proposal when his mobile began to vibrate in his pocket. Nero extracted it from it and smiled when seeing the name on the screen before picking up the call.

“Hey, Kyrie.”

“ _Hi Nero!_ ”, she greeted with her usual cheery tone, “ _and hi V, since I guess he is close._ ”

“Tell her that she will be in charge of Shadow’s next bath.”

“He says--”

“ _I’ve heard it, so tell him thanks for the offer but I will just pass by to play with the kitten._ ”

“I think he had heard you because he is rolling his eyes.”

“ _Hehehe. So how’s your first day been?! Have you been too nervous? And what about  the band? Are they nice to you? And how is the new vocalist? Come on, Nero, I want all the details!_ ”

“Damn, Kyrie, how do you want me to answer if you don’t stop talking?!”

“ _O-Oh, sorry...but it’s your fault for being so slow!_ ”

“Hah?!”

“I will spare you the useless details: he has finally admitted he has a crush on Dante.”

“What the- _V_!”

Nero stepped away from V when this one rapidly approached him to say that to Kyrie, but the harm was done and after letting out a high-pitched squeak Kyrie was already shooting a hundred of questions that forced Nero to separate the mobile from his ear.

“Happy?”, Nero said with an accusing tone when Kyrie’s voice kept sounding uninterrupted.

V simply offered him an ‘innocent’ smile that was everything but innocent.

“As she said, your fault for being too slow.”

Nero rolled his eyes with patience before summoning up the courage to deal with Kyrie.

He loved his friends but, sometimes, he wouldn’t mind that their level of craziness was a little lower.

* * *

Even if theoretically Nero’s contract with the band stipulated that his working days went from Monday to Friday, he nevertheless went to work the following day, since just a month remained until the Halloween thematic concert was held and he had a lot to do if he wanted to make sure that the wings were ready in time. Also, Trish commented in passing the previous day to take a look to the mechanism of the stage, since Nico needed to practice to be singing while suspending and moving in the air and the movement wasn’t as smooth as it should.

Nero had to make use of his legendary stubbornness to convince Trish and Lady, the only ones present at the moment, that he didn’t mind to sacrifice one Saturday (not that he had other plans anyway), but eventually they both accepted and after assuring him that he would be paid _even more_ that day for the trouble Nero was told to go to the office around 10 a.m.

At 10.15 Nero was already working on the wings prototype, on a rather big table situated on the left side of the main room, where most part of the materials Nero needed were scattered around and the rest waiting to be found. Trish apologized to him once again for the chaos surrounding the place and promised him that the next week they would make sure to have everything more organized, but Nero assured her it was fine. He wasn’t characterized by being particularly neat and, unlike others, he clearly preferred a little of disorder around than working on a extremely immaculate place.

As it always happened when he was focused on his work, Nero isolated himself from his surroundings, being little aware of the time that had passed and of what happened around him.

That was probably the reason why he didn’t even hear the door of the warehouse opening and closing, and why he jumped startled when hearing an unexpected ‘ _Hey there_ ’ sounding some steps away from him.

“Ups, sorry, kid. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

With his heart still racing a little Nero turned towards the culprit of the scare. Dante was standing next to him with a helmet in one hand and a heavy looking bag hanging from the opposite arm, his usual half-smile in place, and Nero discovered relieved that, at least, the fact of having acknowledged his attraction for the man helped him to deal with his nervousness a _little_ better.

“It’s okay”, Nero said dismissively, forcing himself to do eye contact with the guitarist, whose eyes always seemed to have a permanent hint of teasing, “how did the interview go?”

“Oh, it was funnier than expected”, Dante’s smile widened while leaving the bag on the floor and his helmet on it, “the interviewer was naive enough to ask Vergil about his private life. It had been a while since the last time I saw someone stutter that much after Vergil simply half-closed his eyes. They had to move ahead the advertisement section so that the man could calm down to continue the interview.”

Nero exhaled a short laugh, being perfectly able to imagine the scene. Although this time the fault was on the interviewer because anyone who had bothered to gather information about _Devil May Cry_ had to know that asking too personal questions to the bassist was the same than asking for trouble.

“Wow, you did this?”, Dante exclaimed impressed while situating next to Nero, observing the prototype that Nero [had designed in paper](https://dkemhji6i1k0x.cloudfront.net/000_clients/261577/page/h800-261577rIeoaAyl.jpg).

“Yes”, Nero scratched the back of his head while Dante took the paper in order to observe it better, “I know that for now I’m just covering two wings but I prefer to test that it works like that before making the adaptations to move the others.”

“Damn, kid”, Dante exhaled a surprised laugh, before looking at Nero, “I think we won the lottery with you. How much it has taken you to design this? Two hours?”

“And half”, Nero completed, trying not to sound too childishly proud, “but as I’ve said I have to check it works first.”

Dante returned the paper to Nero.

“I’m sure it will.”

Nero couldn’t surprise an amused smile when hearing the guitarist’s confident tone.

“Your intuition talking again?”

Dante smiled.

“I see you already get it”, Dante signaled towards the stage with his head, “can you help me with something?”

Nero frowned sightly with curiosity before following Dante towards the back of the stage, where there were four [free-standing panels](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/5f/d5/b8/5fd5b80f57773ce0d551697c4c35dff5--set-design-jam.jpg).

“We need to carry these to the stage”, Dante explained, positioning himself on one of the panels sides, “they aren’t too heavy but it will be easier with two people”

Nero took the other side of the panel, beginning to move backwards.

“You good, kid?”

Nero tried to bite his tongue not to reply, but the temptation was to big.

“Yeah, I am. And you? I wouldn’t like that you strained your back for too much effort.”

He didn’t regret his words when seeing the way Dante half-closed his eyes at him.

“Hey, I’m not _that_ old.”

Nero didn’t answer on purpose, as if indicating that he wasn’t so sure about that and causing Dante to chuckle in defeat.

It didn’t take them much to place the four panels on the stage, situating two on either side.

“Are you going to practice here?”, Nero asked with curiosity when the last panel was in place.

“Nope, better”, Dante said, rubbing the dust out of his hands before smiling cryptically at Nero, “we are going to have a fashion parade.”

Nero blinked twice.

“A what?”

Dante laughed when seeing Nero’s dumbfounded expression, but before the guitarist could explain Nero anything else the garage door opened to allow a big, red Ferrari inside. Nero’s eyes opened wide when seeing the expensive car, and his mouth passed to do the same when the driver stepped out of it and he recognized Lucia, the former vocalist of _Devil May Cry_.

“Dante, where have you left my bag?”, Lucia inquired removing the big, round sunglasses she was wearing while closing the door of her car. She was wearing her now longer red hair in a side braid and her style hadn’t changed with the years: a leather brown jacket over a white top that left her pierced stomach on display, fitted jeans rolled up until below her knees, and long, heeled boots.

“Right there, love”, Dante signaled towards Nero’s workspace while this one was still staring at Lucia, “do you need it now?”

“Yes, I have to charge the camera to make sure it won’t run out of battery in the middle of the recording”, by then Lucia had climbed up the small stairs leading to the stage and looked at Nero with a smile, “Hi. You must be Nero. Nice to meet you.”

Nero was about to answer when Lucia approached him to deposit a kiss on his cheek, causing his eyes to end funnily more opened.

“Oh, sorry”, Lucia exhaled a laugh when seeing Nero’s surprised expression, “French habits are hard to beat”, she extended a hand towards him, “better?”

Nero finally smiled back, recovered from his previous stupor, and accepted the hand she was offering him to shake it with firmness.

“Nice to meet you too”, he said sincerely.

Lucia had always been his favorite _Devil May Cry_ vocalist and back in the day he, together with a lot of other fans, had been disappointed when the band announced that she was going to quit in order to focus on her real passion: fashion photography. People was shocked when hearing this, but later in an interview Lucia admitted that, as much as she liked singing, she mainly did it because she was good at it but that her favorite moments while being in _Devil May Cry_ had been to prepare and decide the clothes the group would wear in the different concerts, so when Patty, Morrison's adoptive daughter, was old enough to sing she decided to retire, even if she kept helping the band as much as her new work allowed it.

“Oh, the panels are already in place. Nice”, the woman said with an approving tone while removing her jacket, leaving it folded on the stage before beginning to inspect the stage, her heels sounding loudly on the metallic floor.

“Told you it would be ready by when you arrived.”

Lucia threw a skeptic look at Dante, looked at Nero and then back at Dante.

“I bet you have had extra help. I still remember how slow you were when being assigned tasks alone.”

“Damn, the ladies of this group are way too exigent.”

“And that’s the reason for which you didn’t last with either Trish or me.”

Lucia spoke it with a light, joking tone but the comment caused Nero to feel an annoying pang of frustration invading him, seeing the possibilities of Dante being remotely interested in men (and, consequently, in him) more and more scarce.

“Okay, kid, thanks for the help”, Dante suddenly said, palming Nero’s shoulder, “that’s all for now. I will be helping this ungrateful lady from now on and we’ll warn you when this is ready.”

“But what are you going to do exactly?”

Nero had never been able to hide his curiosity and wasn’t going to begin to do it now, but his question just made Lucia be the one in showing a mysterious smile.

“You’ll see it soon.”

During the next hour Nero had to do an extra effort to focus on keeping working on the prototype to move the wings, since he kept throwing curious glances towards Dante and Lucia, who didn’t stop moving things from Lucia’s car to the stage. Also, he noticed that some things were surely clothes, for the texture and the care Lucia was using to carry them and the way she reproached Dante when this one was about to let one fall onto the floor. At some point, Dante disappeared through the double doors and Lucia approached Nero’s workspace since that was where her reflex camera was charging. She made some configurations to it, hummed to herself in content and finally approached Nero with a smile.

“Can i bother you for a bit?”

Nero doubted that there was any person alive able to deny Lucia something if she asked with such a sweet tone and smile, so as much gay as he was, he followed the woman without hesitation.

“Okay…”, Lucia situated the camera on a tripod situated on the floor just in front of the stage and began to look through it, “...can you go to the stage and situate in the middle?”

Nero did as indicated.

“Nice. Now move a little to your left”, Lucia continued with her indications still looking at the camera, “a little more. Now take a step behind. Another one...yes! Perfect. Don’t move.”

While Nero made sure not to move an inch Lucia crouched on the floor and fumbled inside her bag, incorporating again with a piece of chalk in her hands.

“Catch!”, Nero thanked his reflexes when he was able to take the chalk with a fluid movement, “good one. Now, please, mark in the floor the place where you are standing with an X.”

After doing that Lucia asked Nero to go behind one of the panels and exit from it, walking then until reaching the X he had just drawn on the floor. He had to repeat the same action a couple of times before Lucia was satisfied.

“Great, this is ready now. Thank you. Now can you please turn the lights off for a moment?”

Nero was pretty sure he had tested all the combinations of turning on and off the lights of the warehouse until Lucia was satisfied with the result. Maybe eventually Dante wasn’t wrong when saying that the woman was exigent, but she asked everything so nicely that Nero didn’t mind to help her with whatever she was doing.

“Mmm, I don’t think that we need the spotlights for this. That’s good”, Lucia said more to herself before turning to look at Nero with a grateful smile, “thank you very much, Nero. Now when the others come we can begin--oh, nice, just in time.”

Nero followed Lucia’s eyes in time to see the whole _Devil May Crew_ exiting the double doors. Trish and Lady were talking to Nico and for the expression of the twins it seemed that they were talking/arguing about something again.

“Come on, slowpokes! I don’t have all day”, Lucia shouted towards the group, placing both hands on either side of her mouth and chuckling when the entire group (except Vergil) began to walk a little faster, “it never fails.”

Nero suppressed a chuckle when Lucia looked at him with a satisfied smile. Definitely all the ladies of _Devil May Cry_ had strong personalities, and Nero had the feeling that no one would want them as enemies.  

“Sit here, Nero”, this one was surprised when Lucia approached a folding chair next to him, “as a reward for the help, you are going to play the part of the audience.”

Nero sat down with a confused frown. By then he had already deduced that the members of the band were going to do some kind of catwalk in the stage but he didn’t know what was the objective of it. And honestly, he just hoped that whatever Dante was going to wear didn’t manage to make him be more attractive or he would probably be in trouble.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the camera is on from now on”, Lucia announced after clicking the button, “whenever one of you are ready, feel free to hit the stage all the stylish as you can.”

Nero heard several expressions and murmurs of confirmation coming from behind the panels. During the following minutes he also heard an irritated ‘ _Don’t be so brute: you are going to break it_ ’ that unmistakably belonged to Vergil and an hesitant ‘ _Uhm_ , _Lady, I think you should wear that shirt under that’_ coming from Nico that was followed by a resigned ‘ _Don’t try, dear: she is as exhibitionist as Dante_ ’ that surely corresponded to Trish.

“Come on, guys, I’ve met snails that are faster than you”, Lucia teased from behind the camera, which caused some more murmurs and a tsking sound whose owner was evident.

After almost another five minutes, finally there was some movement from the right panel belonging to the ladies and Trish exited from it.

Her past as a model was evident for the way she moved her hips and how she walked with one foot in front of the other with perfect coordination, one hand leaning softly on her right hip while moving, stopping in the exact place of the mark.

“Oh yes, girl, as stylish as always”, Lucia said with a wide smile, “so, do you like it?”

Lucia was referring to the clothes [Trish was wearing](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1p.GzSVXXXXXjXXXXq6xXFXXXm/Punk-rave-Gothic-Lace-Arwen-Victorian-Visual-Kei-Women-Jacket-Y588-M-XL.jpg_640x640.jpg), and that’s when Nero realized that the band wasn’t just making a random fashion parade: they were trying on the clothes they would wear in the Halloween concert.

Which meant...that Nero was going to see Dante dressing like a probably sexy vampire?

Shit, he wanted to see that as much as he didn’t.

“It’s really beautiful”, Trish said, rotating a little over herself, “although it would help that the sleeves were a little shorter, so that they don’t bother me while playing.”

“Mmm, you are right”, Lucia tipped her chin with her finger while thinking, “I will shorten them so that they are up your forearm. Would that be okay?”

“Yes, that would do.”

“Great. Later I will take a close-up footage but for now it’s perfect.”

Trish winked playfully at the camera before taking her leave behind the panel once again.

“Why are you recording all this?”, Nero asked Lucia then.

“Well, it’s a mutual promotion: I provide the clothes for them and in exchange they let me record the whole session, which obviously promotes my photography studio but also their music. A complete win-win situation”, Lucia smiled at Nero before focusing on the stage again, “Lady, hon, your turn now.”

“Yup!”

The way Lady entered the stage wasn’t as dignified as Trish’s but it was way more dynamic, and when she stopped in the middle of the stage it was with her hands on her hips and leaning her weight in her right leg.

“Lady…”, Lucia frowned with confusion, “...I think you forgot you t-shirt.”

Nero was thinking the same thing because he really doubted that that [coat ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9a/37/69/9a3769042c2e421e21bae5556a34686a.jpg)was meant to be worn without nothing else, because even if Lady had buttoned up the two buttons of the middle, her bra was clearly seen under it.

“Oh, I haven’. But I think it’s better this way”, Lady said nonchalantly, causing Lucia to half-close her eyes at her while a reproaching ‘ _I told you_ ’ coming from Trish was heard from behind the panel, “oh, come on! You know it’s too hot during concerts: I will die if I use that coat _and_ the t-shirt!”

“Okay, okay”, Lucia said raising her arms in front of her to stop Lady’s complains, “if you don’t want the t-shirt that’s fine _but_ I will choose your underwear. Because that pink one doesn’t suit at all with the rest.”

“And can’t I go without a bra--?”

“ _No_!”, Lucia and Trish said at the same time.

“Hey, why not? Don’t be bullies and let the lady choose what she wants to wear--”

“Dante, no one has asked for your opinion.”

After a little more of discussion Lady eventually agreed to let Lucia in charge of her undergarments and after that it was Nico’s turn. Nero was suffering as much as the woman when seeing the way she was clumsily walking with heels. It was evident that she wasn’t used to wear them and the second time she was about to break an ankle Lucia immediately told her to remove them, telling her that they would choose more comfortable shoes.

Also, Nico commented that she would feel more comfortable wearing pants than the [dress ](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1650/9391/products/DW166_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1536871204)Lucia had initially thought for her. Lucia showed her then some other alternatives in her tablet and after Nico [made her choice](https://www.dhresource.com/0x0s/f2-albu-g6-M00-09-03-rBVaSFq5AqqAc--FAAGpISkDpuU463.jpg/gothic-steampunk-women-s-hooded-long-coat.jpg) it was finally the males’ turn.

Nero was honestly glad when Vergil was the first one in appearing from behind the panel, since that would give him more time to practice his poker face. Vergil’s innate style allowed the man to look classy on practically everything, but Nero had to admit that the[ blue, vampyric suit](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/66/1d/fa/661dfa741397b5c6795305b044f40c7e.jpg) he was wearing looked specially good on him. However, the spell was a little broken when he rapidly walked to the middle of the stage, obviously wanting to finish with the recording as soon as possible.

“Vergil, hon, do you think you could do it again without looking about to murder someone?”

Lucia’s soft but teasing comment caused the bassist to roll his eyes and after sighing with impatience he came back behind the panel, where some laughs belonging to Dante could be heard before an ‘ _Ouch_ ’, surely the result of Vergil hitting his brother.

The next time the bassist exited from the panels he walked more calmly, chin a little raised in the condescending expression that had managed to conquer the hearts of many fans, even if Nero had never quite understood it because he didn’t see the attractive of being looked down at.

“Much better, thank you. Do you like it?”

“It’s not bad but do I have to wear this shirt?”, Vergil signaled his partly exposed neck and chest with discontent, “unlike my brother I don’t need to show skin to please the audience.”

“Hey! I don’t content them _just_ with that”, Dante said, slipping his head out of the panel while Vergil clicked his tongue, clearly disagreeing.

“Well, we can change it if you want”, Lucia said, managing to stop the new bickering in time and causing Vergil to nod in approval before coming back.

A _‘Prude_ ’ coming from Dante followed by a ‘ _Indecent_ ’ coming from Vergil were heard before Lucia said a loud ‘ _Dante, it’s your turn_ ’ that made Nero suppress a gulp, getting mentally prepared to see Dante and not to react too much to it.

Needless to say, all his preparation was useless, and when Dante appeared in the stage dressed in a [red suit](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6d/95/0f/6d950f1fa83844a3c6435fefb1496194.jpg) really similar to the blue one Vergil had worn Nero felt hot all of sudden, because unlike Vergil who had complained for exposing too much skin Dante was just the opposite, since the jacket he was wearing was completely opened, exposing his whole torso.

And yes, Nero had already seen Dante shirtless, but somehow seeing the guitarist in a middle state of dressing was even sexier.

“Another hater of wearing a t-shirt under the jacket?”, Lucia said jokingly.

“As I said: indecent.”

“Sorry, but it’s not my fault this time”, Dante grabbed the sides of his jacket and pushed it a little more opened, causing Nero to have to cross his legs in his seat when seeing the action, “I can’t close the t-shirt under it. I think it’s broken.”

“What? It can’t be.”

Lucia abandoned the camera and climbed rapidly the stairs, approaching Dante to inspect the zipper of the black t-shirt, which barely managed to cover Dante’s abs. Lady, Trish and Nico also abandoned the panel to surround Dante and Lucia, while Vergil remained observing the scene from a little behind.

“It’s not broken, just stuck”, Lucia cursed, while fighting with the clothing.

“Let me try”, Trish said, but it was to no avail. And after Lady tried it again without success Lucia exhaled an exasperated sigh.

“Damn, isn’t there anyone who is skilled with their hands?”

Nero, who was trying to go as unnoticed as possible, froze when _everyone_ fixed their eyes on him after hearing Lucia’s words.

“Well, it certainly sounds like the handyman’s work.”

Nero’s stupor managed to grow even more when Vergil suddenly commented that with an imperturbable expression that contrasted with the mischievous glint of his eyes.

Wait…

...it couldn’t be that Vergil had somehow guessed that he liked Dante, right? _Right_?

“Nero, can you try it?”, Lucia said with a hoping tone, “this t-shirt is not precisely  cheap and I would prefer that it came in one piece”

“Y-Yeah, sure.”

 _Fuck, Nero, get a hold on yourself_ , he thought with irritation when he couldn’t suppress an initial stutter.

Hoping that his nervousness was interpreted as fear for breaking an expensive piece of clothing, Nero stepped on the stage and replaced Lady’s position in front of Dante, with his heart beating way faster than it should.

He was almost as tall as Dante so he made sure to keep his eyes down not to find himself staring at the guitarist in a too close distance. He tried that his gaze didn’t roam too much over the exposed skin before fixing it on the zipper. Nero carefully took the bottom of the jacket and made sure to kick aside all the completely unnecessary thoughts that had began to pop up in his head, about him playing with Dante’s zipper in a scenario that hadn’t much to do with the current one.

“Any luck down there, kid?”

Nero just hoped the others didn’t notice the light trembling of his fingers when he heard Dante’s voice way too close. And damn, why the hell he had to smell so damn nice? He didn’t know if it was Dante’s cologne, his shampoo or his damn natural scent but it was making him feel a little dizzy in a not completely unpleasant way.

“It’s not moving”, Nero said after some seconds. He made the mistake of looking up, realizing that he was right when assuming that he would be really close to Dante’s face so he rapidly turned his head to focus on anyone but the guitarist, who resulted to be Trish, “can you give me a pencil? Sometimes rubbing graphite on the zipper teeth can help to unblock it.”

“On it.”

Five minutes later and after rubbing the graphite on  the zipper, it was still stuck.

“Dante the guitarist: causing trouble wherever he goes”, Lady said in a lilting tone while Lucia kept staring at the zipper with a threatening expression.

“Come on, it hasn’t been my fault this time!”, Dante exclaimed offended.

“Sorry, Lucia”, Trish apologized before half-closing her eyes at Dante, “if at the end it breaks, Dante will pay it?”

“What?!”

“Before that, we can try something else”, Nero intervened, causing Dante to look at him hopingly, “if we use soap of some kind of lubricant on the zipper it can help too--”

“Oh, really?”, Dante interrupted him, suddenly signaling towards behind the left panels, “Vergil, please, can you check the back pocket of my jeans? I think I still have a packet of lube there.”

When hearing Dante’s way too natural comment Trish and Lucia exhaled respective resigned sighs, Lady and Nico laughed and Vergil answered with a cutting  ‘ _Over my dead body_ ’, while Nero couldn’t stop his hands from doing a too brusque movement that, miraculously, managed to fix the zipper, causing everyone to stare at the result in stupor.

Nero managed to stop his eyes from opening more in surprise and, after adopting a slightly cocky expression, he made sure this time of fixing his eyes on Dante’s astonished ones while, slowly, zipping up the t-shirt until practically reaching the top of Dante’s pectorals.

“You can keep your lube”, he said ironically, “it’s fixed now.”

Nero couldn’t pay attention to Dante’s next expression because at that moment Lucia suddenly grabbed his face to deposit a grateful kiss on his cheek, while Nico extended a fist towards him while saying an impressed: ‘ _Well done, bro_ ’, that made Nero laugh while responding to the bro fist.

“An applause for the best handyman!”, Lady exclaimed, causing everyone to do the same except Vergil, who was busy looking at Dante and Nero alternatively with a hint of a grin that no one noticed.

After that, everyone left the stage so that Dante could do his walk. Everyone, Nero included, laughed when the guitarist made the first walk imitating Trish rather accurately, which caused Lucia to threaten him to do it properly even if she was also laughing. Dante’s next walk finished with him hooking his thumbs on the border of his trousers while swinging a little his hips as if he was following the rhythm of an nonexistent song, and even if Lucia hesitated for a moment eventually she decided that it was rather Dante-like and that people would like it.

“Okay, guys, it’s over for now”, Lucia said stopping the camera, “I will pass the footage to my computer and this afternoon I will record some more. And speaking of which…”, Nero was surprised when Lucia looked at him with bright eyes, “...wouldn’t you want to appear too? Because you are _really_ handsome and I have some clothes that could look great on you.”

Nero exhaled an embarrassed laugh, noticing the tip of his ears burning a little for the unexpected compliment.

“Thanks for the offer but hate to be photographed.”

“What a pity”, Lucia said with a light disappointed tone.

Nero had just came back to his workspace and was about to get to work again when suddenly Nico appeared in front of him.

“Hey, the others have said that they want to invite us to some lunch, as a late welcome to the band”, she lowered her tone to keep whispering, “you’re coming, right? Because if it’s some expensive place I don’t want to be the only one in not knowing what fork to use”

Just at that precise moment Nero’s stomach rumbled. Nico took it as a confirmation even if Nero hadn’t said anything and grabbed him by his wrist, dragging him towards the rest of the group, who was already dressing their normal clothes.

“Nice, so _Magic Fingers_ is coming too.”

The expression of horror that appeared on Nero’s face when hearing Dante’s nickname was so genuine that the guitarist began to laugh, while the rest leaded the way up stairs.

“What, you don’t like the title?”

“Do I really have to answer?”, Nero said with irony, causing Dante to chuckle again while they both began to climb up the stairs.

“Okay, so how do you want to be called?”

“I don’t know, but not _that._ ”

“Okay, let me think...what about _Gold Hands_?”

“Nope.”

“ _The Fantastic Handyman_?”

“Even worse.”

“Damn, you are surely hard to satisfy.”

Nero suppressed a smile. He didn’t know if it was because the incident with the zipper had given him a boost of confidence or simply because he felt pretty at ease around Dante at that moment, but that innuendo was too good to let it pass.

“Yes, I am.”

Nero finished the sentence purposely winking in the same way he had seen Dante do countless times, causing the man to look at him surprised before grinning.

“Okay, I think I have the ultimate alias: ‘ _Nero, the Insatiable_ ’.”

“What the fuck, no!”, Nero said, letting out an horrified laugh while Dante adopted a fake confused expression.

“Why? Weren’t you hard to satisfy?”

“Oh my god, please, can’t you simply call me Nero?”

“Nah, where’s the fun in that?”

Dante didn’t stop making up more and more horrible alias until abandoning the shop, while Nero had more and more difficulties to pretend to be at least a little annoyed about that fact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically the lunch was going to be in this chapter but after reaching 7k words I decided it was better to stop here ^^U I hope that Nero panicking a little around Dante had been worth it at least :P


	5. Cards game

The restaurant where Trish had made the reservation was in the City Centre, which meant that the entire group couldn’t go there together unless they wanted to be recognized. Lucia wasn’t going to join them because she had other commitments, but she did offer to take some of them to the restaurant since it was on her way.

When hearing that, Nico immediately asked to go with her, arguing that the opportunities to mount in a Ferrari any time soon were rather slim and she didn’t want to miss it. Nero thought exactly the same, which clearly showed in his face because without giving him many options to refuse Lucia lead him towards the copilot seat and practically pushed him inside. Not that he minded, he thought while comfortably accommodating in the seat and leaning his forearm on the car’s window.

The last free spot in Lucia’s car was filled with Lady, which left the twins with no other option than letting Trish drive them towards their destination, and maybe it was Nero’s imagination but when Trish gestured the brothers to enter her car the look that Dante and Vergil interchanged oozed a little of fear.

“Alright ladies and Nero: belts on”, Lucia put her sunglasses on again and grabbed the steering wheel with a smile, “hope you enjoy the ride.”

Nero definitely did.

In fact, none him nor Nico could prevent a loud impressed _‘Wow_!’ when Lucia finally abandoned the narrow street and stepped on the gas pedal, beginning to drive at a speed that was surely higher than the legal one, but Nero and Nico were busy having the drive of their life to care and Lady was busy moving with rhythm of the music playing inside the car without the least intention of playing the ‘responsible adult’ role.

Sadly, the fun didn’t last long and in less than fifteen minutes Lucia stopped in front of the restaurant.

“See you later, babes”, Lucia said once Nero, Nico and Lady had stepped out the car, “don’t be silly and make sure to order the most expensive of the menu now that it’s on them.”

“Hey!”, Lady protested, but Lucia had already blown a kiss towards Nero and Nico and was driving forward before the keyboards player could add anything else.

Since Lady was the only recognizable member of the band while Nero and Nico were still complete strangers they decided to enter the restaurant by the front door, considering that the people who could have recognized Lady would simply think that she really looked like the keyboards player of _Devil May Cry_. The place was practically full by when they entered, and a simple a look at the customers was enough to let Nero know that, as Nico had feared, they were in a pretty expensive place. In fact, while Lady talked to the waiter some people stared at him without any subtleness with a light reproachful look, probably for the too casual clothes they were wearing, but when that happened Nero limited himself to stare back with the same insistence until the person in question decided to avert their gaze.

“Ma’ams and gentleman”, the waiter suddenly said, addressing them, “your table is ready. Please, follow me.”

Lady was the first one following the extremely polite waiter. Meanwhile Nero and Nico were barely able to suppress the laugh when several customers opened their eyes wide in stupor after seeing them climb up the stairs towards the VIP room.

Again, Nero and Nico couldn’t suppress respective impressed exclamations when seeing that the VIP room was practically as big as the main floor, since besides the round table where they were going to eat it also included its private bar, a pool table, some couches that composed a mini chill-out zone and a jukebox that made Nico open her eyes even wider.

“Wow, so cool!”, she exclaimed while rapidly approaching it, beginning to read the available songs.

“Quickly, choose one”, Lady said enclosing an arm around Nico while the woman kept mumbling the songs to herself, “otherwise Dante will pick one of his horribly old songs.”

While Lady and Nico chose the music Nero took a look around with curiosity, observing the multiple pictures adorning the place. There were a lot of famous people posing on them and it didn’t take him much to find the one in which _Devil May Cry_ appeared. The picture had been taken 8 years ago but the group had barely changed. Also, if Nero’s memory didn’t fail him, Dante and Trish were dating around that time, but there was no way to be sure by looking at their poses, since Dante _always_ posed with women in a way that could be considered handsy if it wasn’t because they were the ones who didn’t look uncomfortable at all by it, but just the exact opposite most part of the times.

Nero was grateful when the opposite door of the room leading to the back of the restaurant opened to reveal a completely pale Dante and a not-completely-composed Vergil, the vision of the two brothers being about to faint, throw up or both being funny enough to push away the pang of jealousy that had been about to settle in him.

“Oh, thank goodness”, Dante exhaled, practically stomping towards the bar to serve himself a glass of what Nero deduced it was whiskey while Vergil went directly to the table to sit down, as if he needed some minutes to be his usual dignified self.

“That bad?”, Lady asked, causing Dante to nod while still taking a sip of his drink and Vergil to mutter a threatening ‘ _Last time_ ’, at the exact moment in which Trish appeared at the door.

“You two are too exaggerated”, Trish protested, closing the door behind her.

“What did you do this time?”, Lady asked with amusement, approaching the table. Nero took it as an indication to sit down so he did it with Trish at his right and Nico at his left.

“Nothing!”, Trish exclaimed, and if it wasn’t for the outraged glare Vergil threw at her, Nero would have almost believed her because the drums player really sounded sincere.

“I hope you mean that you did _nothing_ right”, Vergil sarcastically said, while Dante loudly left his now empty glass on the barcounter to sit between his brother and Trish, “because please, correct me if I’m mistaken, but I would swear that red means ‘ _Stop_ ’, not ‘ _Accelerate at full speed_ ’."

“That was just a little miscalculation! I thought I would have time to pass it while it was in amber--”

“Trish, you passed all the semaphores in red”, Dante made an horizontal gesture with his hand, slowly, while vocalizing the next words, “absolutely...all.”

“...Well, but no one died, right?”

Nero was having as many difficulties as Lady and Nico not to laugh because he wasn’t expecting that the usual mature Trish was pouting with her arms crossed, and taking so personally that the twins criticized her driving skills when it was more than evident that she was pretty dangerous.

“It seems that it’s a sensitive matter”, Nico whispered in Nero’s ear, causing this one to have to pretend to cough not to laugh and make Trish even angrier.

After five minutes of Trish trying to justify herself without any success, they finally called the waiter by pressing a button situated on the nearest wall. The man brought them the menu and Nero’s attempts of looking casual while looking at the prices failed spectacularly, since suddenly he felt Trish hand softly setting under his chin to close his mouth, who had fallen half-opened without noticing.

“Do you already know what you want, kid?”

Nero exhaled a light nervous laugh.

“Well, it would be nice to know what I’m ordering for a start”, he confessed, since some plates were written in French and others were in an English that apparently just rich, famous people could understand. He wasn’t very surprised when his comment caused Vergil to click his tongue while still looking at the menu.

“Nor cast your pearls before swine.”

Dante and Lady looked at Vergil with respective confused frowns, but Nero made his best to adopt a really casual tone when talking next.

“‘ _Lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces_ ’, Matthew 7:6.”

That time though there was no way that he could prevent a cocky smile when his reply made Vergil raise his eyes from the menu without enough time to completely hide his surprised expression.

“It seems that Vergil isn’t the only cultivated freak around anymore.”

Despite Dante’s words were joking, he was looking at Nero with an impressed expression that was completely real. Was a little stupid to feel proud of that fact? Probably yes. But Nero felt like that anyway, even if the merit wasn’t entirely his.

“Actually I just have good memory”, Nero admitted, “my friend V is the one who knows all the imaginable quotes.”

“V?”, Trish repeated with curiosity.

“He doesn’t like his name very much”, Nero explained.

“Oh, why?”, Nico immediately asked with expectation, “is it that horrible? Tell us, tell us!”

Nero shook his head with a smile.

“He would kill me if I told anyone.”

“Oh, come on! He is not here!”, Lady exclaimed.

“Jeez, how can you be so nosy?”, Dante said with a laugh.

“Because it’s always funny to know embarrassing things about people.”

“About people you don’t even know”, Vergil deadpanned with a tone that clearly indicated he couldn’t understand Lady’s reasoning and that he didn’t want to make an effort to do so.

“Oh, but I know who he is!”

Nero’s eyes snapped open.

“What?”

“Well, I think I do. Isn’t he the hot, mysterious guy that was waiting for you after the audition?”

Nero’s astonished expression was enough answer.

“But how can you know that?”, Trish exclaimed, looking at Lady as if she was a witch while this one laughed triumphantly.

“I never reveal my tricks”, everyone threw a look at her that caused the keyboards player to exhale a long sigh, “fiiiine: I saw him through the window.”

“But when did you--?”, Trish shut up and half-closed her eyes at her, “wait a minute, you pretended to receive a call during the audition to go gossiping around?!”

“Maaaaybe? Come on, it was sooo boring...And we already knew we were going to pick Nico!”

“Seriously, you are incredible”

“Yes, you are!”, Dante exclaimed, “you could have let me slope off with you- _ouch_ ! But Vergil, _why_?”

“Because that was not the point and you know it.”

After another 5 minutes of Trish and Vergil reproaching Lady and of Dante occasionally receiving correctives from his brother, they finally ordered. Trish and Dante were the ones who suggested Nero what to choose and even if he felt in part grateful for it because the food was delicious, he also realized that by doing that it seemed as if Dante and Trish were his parents, which made him feel mildly uncomfortable. Maybe if he was into the ‘daddy kink’ stuff he wouldn’t have minded _but_ he wasn’t, so the last thing he wanted was that Dante saw him as a fucking son.

Damn, couldn’t Dante be like 10 or 15 years younger? Although thinking better about it he probably wouldn’t be so damn attractive so no: his only choice was to somehow manage to show that he wasn’t as ‘kid’ as they thought, even if he had zero idea about how to achieve so.

“Wow, I’m so full!”, Nico exclaimed after everyone finished, dropping against the back of her chair with her hands over her now rounder tummy, “damn, I should have worn looser shorts.”

Nero did the same, observing with a pained expression the leftovers of one of the best desserts he had ever tasted. Damn, he didn’t remember the last time he had been unable to finish a lunch, but he really felt about to explode.

“Oh, you aren’t going to finish it?”, Nero’s eyes opened wide when Lady suddenly leaned forward and took his plate, taking a big bite while the rest looked at her in disbelief, “what? Everyone knows it’s a crime not to finish desserts!”

Trish opened her mouth to probably reply but eventually sighed with resignation, shaking her head.

Nero didn’t know how Lady managed to finish the rest of his dessert in mere seconds without giving the impression of eating too much or fast. Maybe she was a witch after all.

“So, now that the lunch is over….”, Nero’s suspicions about Lady’s magic powers grew when she suddenly extracted some cards from her fitted clothes, “...it’s time for a game!”

The annoyed groan coming from the rest of the band members let Nero know that Lady was the only one who liked the idea.

“Oh, come on! Don’t be boring”, she exclaimed while beginning to shuffle the cards, “it will be fun. And I won’t cheat this time: I promise.”

“Wait, where did I hear that before…?”, Dante adopted a fake thoughtful tone while crossing his arms (Nero _really_ had to stop staring whenever the guitarist did that), “oh, now I remember. You always say the same when we agree to play...”

“...and you _always_ lie”, Vergil completed his brother without ever realizing, “because it’s neither funny nor lack of cheating.”

“Pfft”, Lady giggled, elbowing Vergil playfully, “you just don’t like to play because you always lose. Even when I don’t cheat.”

“That’s _not_ true”, Vergil half-closed his eyes when Trish pretended to be examining her nails and Dante was suddenly too interested in the ceiling, more confirming than denying Lady’s words.

“Don’t worry, it’s pretty difficult to cheat in this game. And I promise you will like it. Although…”, Lady looked at Nero and Nico with a mischievous smile, “...I don’t know if the newbies will think the same.”

Nero frowned, but Lady continued talking without giving him time to ask anything.

“The game is pretty simple. First of all, we are divided into two teams: the former _Devil May Cry_ band and the newbies. Then, we shuffle the cards and each player takes one.The player who gets the higher card has the chance to ask _anything_ to the member of the opposite team. Easy, right?”

If Nero wasn’t busy analyzing the game, he would have probably laughed at the way Trish and Dante had looked at Vergil inquisitively after Lady finished the explanation, causing this one to glare at them while hissing an offended ‘ _I’ve understood it, idiots_ ’.

“But that’s not fair”, Nero exclaimed, “it’s four against two, so you have more chances to ask Nico or me than the other way around”

“Well, that’s the main point of it, silly. After all we are famous and you probably know a lot about us but…”, Lady grinned, showing her perfect smile, “ ...we barely know anything about you, so it’s time to change it.”

“And we can’t do that simply talking because…”, Trish began.

“...that’s too boring”, Trish threw a look at Dante when this one said the same than Lady, “what? Not gonna lie, I’m curious about our new vocalist and about ‘ _The Zipper Master_ ’.”

While the ladies chuckled Nero simply rolled his eyes, fighting to push back the smile that threatened to appear in his face.

However, he immediately recovered his serious expression when noticing Vergil’s eyes on him, showing a hint of amusement that made Nero’s heart skip a beat when suddenly remembering Vergil’s intervention in the zipper incident.

 _Shit_.

Vergil wasn’t going to ask what he was thinking, right? In fact, he better stop thinking about it just in case the man somehow managed to read it in his expression, since he was aware that he sucked at hiding his emotions more than he would ever admit...

...and wait a minute, what if not just Vergil but everyone had been aware of his unrequited crush with Dante and planned to ask him about it?!

Fuck, suddenly that game didn’t seem funny _at all_.

“Alright then, let’s go!”

Nero’s intentions to pathetically hide in the toilet not to play remained as such when Nico passed him the cards. Suppressing a sigh he took the first, and wasn’t the least surprised when obtaining a mere Club 4.

“Oh yeah, I win!”

“Really?”, Nero felt like kissing Nico at that moment when seeing the woman sustaining in her hand a Spades Queen.

“Wow, someone is happy for not having to answer questions.”

Nero had to suppress a gulp when Dante said that in a utterly amused tone, while looking at him with a smile that, for the first time, Nero didn’t like one bit.

“Yes, it seems that our handyman has some secrets that wants to keep unrevealed.”

Nero felt his heart beginning to beat faster when Vergil intervened, softly tapping over his Clover 9 leaning on the table, but the fact that Vergil was clearly trying to make him uneasy made his stubbornness be stronger than his nervousness.

“Well, that’s something we have in common”, Nero replied with casualness, “although for now I haven’t frightened any interviewers yet.”

Nero’s comment caused the bassist to look at Dante, who shrugged in a rather unconvincing way trying to pretend he had nothing to do with Nero knowing that.

“Okay, Nico, shoot your question”, Lady said with a smile.

Nico hummed to herself for some seconds before looking at all the members alternatively.

“How did you meet?”

“Well, it wasn’t something that I could avoid”, Dante answered quickly, signaling at Vergil with his thumb, “I had the tragedy of sharing my mother’s womb with this guy.”

“I think that’s my line.”

“I went to the same school that these two”, Trish intervened, looking at the arguing twins with patience, “I’ve been standing them for a looong time.”

“I met them later”, Lady commented, “Lucia and I went to the same University but to gain some extra cash we entered a model agency. We just lasted a month though because we were horrible following the rules and the strict diets, but it was enough to meet Trish there and convince her to leave that place with us”

Nico hummed again.

“But how did you become a group after tha--?”

“Ah ah ah”, Lady placed her index finger against Nico’s lips and winked playfully, “you got your answer already, babe. Keep that one for the next time you win.”

With Nico’s dark skin it was difficult to say but Nero thought to see a light blush adorning the girl’s cheeks. And now that he thought about it, it wasn’t the first time that he saw Nico react nervously around Lady. Could it be that he wasn’t the only one who liked a member of _Devil May Cry_?

His thoughts were interrupted though when he had to take another card. He made the mistake of letting his hopes up when seeing a Diamond 8 but they were soon crushed when seeing the Hearts 9 that Lady was sustaining in her hand with a triumphant expression. Nero looked at Nico’s card but a lame Club 2 was all she got.

“Winning in the second turn?”, Dante half-closed his eyes, “suspicious.”

Lady simply stuck her tongue at Dante as an answer before turning towards Nico.

“Okay, how many tattoos do you have and what they mean?”

“Lady, don’t cheat”, Trish commented with a patient tone, “that’s two questions in one.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind”, Nico commented with a cheery tone.

She proceeded to fulfill Lady’s petition and when she finished Lady looked at her with curiosity.

“And do you have other tattoos hidden?”

Nico shrugged softly, adopting a mysterious smile while hooking her hands on the shorts she was wearing, exactly in the place where the butts of her inked pistols were.

“Maybe, but you will have to wait until your next turn to find out.”

Lady returned the smile, eyes lingering between the tattoos and Nico’s face.

“Well, that’s some strong motivation to win.”

Nero blinked twice before turning towards Trish, who was looking at the scene with an astonished expression. It seemed that he wasn’t the only one who thought that the last interaction was more flirting than dialogue.

Trish was the winner of the next turn, with a Spades Knight.

“Very well, my question is for Nero”, this one tensed a little when Trish took her time to formulate the question, “what did you do during your first 23 years of life?”

Dante was about to spit it out the wine he had just drunk after hearing Trish’s super specific question, while Nico and Lady began to laugh.

“And was I the one who doesn’t know how to play games?”

“Well, I dare you to come up with another question that covers all that information”, Trish answered Vergil’s sarcasm with a dignified tone, clearly ignoring Dante, Lady and Nico who were still laughing before looking at Nero, “so?”

Nero put his best poker face before answering.

“Living.”

His purposely laconic answer made the others begin to laugh again while Trish’s mouth fell opened.

“That’s cheating!”

“It’s not. After all you didn’t ask for any specific details”, Nero chuckled when seeing Trish half-close her eyes menacingly, beginning to answer seriously, “I lived in Fortuna until I was 16, and moved to the city when turning 17. I rented an apartment with V, spent that year doing occasional jobs while finishing my studies, I tried University when turning 18 but as I suspected it wasn’t for me, so I kept doing temporary jobs until deciding that I preferred to be on my own”, Nero thought for a moment, “and that’s pretty much everything.”

Nero wasn’t expecting the silence that fell when he finished, neither the serious tone of Dante when talking next.

“And your parents didn’t help you in any way after moving?”

No one seemed to want to remind Dante that Nero had already answered Trish’s question, so Nero simply answered again.

“I don’t have parents”, he simply said, and knowing the reaction that such a revelation used to cause in people he continued after detecting that Dante was going to apologize, “and it’s okay. The orphanage where I grew up was very nice and I still keep in touch with some of the children from then.”

“Like V?”, Nico guessed, causing Nero to nod.

“Yes. In fact…”, he smiled, “...when we had visits of parents that wanted to adopt a child, he and I made sure to behave the worst we could not to be chosen. It worked wonders.”

Nero’s anecdote caused Nico to chuckle and Lady to smile warmly, but when he turned towards Trish this one still had a guilty expression.

“I’m sorry, maybe I asked too personal information.”

Nero snorted.

“Hey, I could have gone with that ‘ _Living_ ’ but I decided not to.”

Nero’s argument made her laugh, and as it usually happened Nero’s eyes eventually wandered towards Dante to discover that the guitarist was still looking at him, with an expression that, though relaxed again, was slightly more serious than usual.

However, Nero didn’t have time to analyze it because at that moment Vergil talked.

“Well, since Trish, Nico and Dante have asked when it wasn’t their turn, the next one is between Nero and me.”

“Hey, I haven’t asked anything!”, Lady protested.

“But you have already won, so you are out.”

Vergil fake sounded logic caused the others (except Lady, who sulked) to laugh, which helped to lower the serious atmosphere that had settled after Trish’s question. Nero didn’t know if Vergil had done it on purpose, but the result was that it worked.

After choosing his card Vergil passed the others to Nero, who felt his heart stop momentarily when seeing his low Hearts 5, meaning that Vergil was surely going to ask him something and if he brought up that topic he was screwed…

... but then Vergil cursed, and Nero realized that, somehow, luck had been on his side and he had beat Vergil’s Spades 2.

Dante whistled.

“You couldn’t get a lower card, brother.”

“Shut up”, Vergil simply snapped, obviously annoyed for having lost.

Meanwhile, Nero was thinking furiously. Now it was his chance to learn a little more about Dante, but he had the feeling that asking a direct: ‘ _Are you just into women?_ ’ would be everything but subtle. He could even imagine in his head V’s horrified face if he did that, so he decided to ask something that, maybe, with the others’ usual teasing comments would help him discover if Dante’s preferences were exclusively feminine.

“So, Dante…”

Damn, he wasn’t used yet to say that name aloud, and not that he minded to eventually spell it even louder and in a hopefully more breathless tone _but_ definitely it was not clever to follow that train of thought with so many people around.

“Have you ever been in a serious relationship?”

“ _HA_!”

Nero wasn’t expecting when Vergil and Lady exclaimed that at unison, causing Dante to look funnily offended.

“Hey, what's that suppose to mean?! I have been in serious relationships!”, Dante looked at Trish, looking for some support, “come on, Trish, back me up on this: we dated for almost 5 years!”

“Yes, but I’m not sure that counts”, Trish said with an apologetic smile.

“Nope, it doesn’t”, Lady confirmed, leaning her chin on the palm of her hand, “you were more like friends who occasionally acted as a couple.”

Dante exhaled a defeated sigh.

“Okay, but I almost lasted two with Lucia.”

“Two years?”, Nero inquired surprised, not recalling having heard anything about Dante and Lucia dating in the news, but then the guitarist scratched his jaw awkwardly.

“Nope. Weeks.”

Dante’s answer caused a new wave of chuckles and a roll of eyes coming from Vergil.

“So your higher record is two weeks”, Nero repeated, barely containing the laughter when Dante huffed as if the whole world was against him.

“It’s not my fault that ladies are so exigent.”

“In that case maybe you should consider focusing on the opposite gender.”

Nero didn’t know how he managed to prevent his jaw from hanging open when suddenly Vergil said that.

Trying not to look excessively interested for the comment, Nero paid attention to Dante’s reaction, fearing that he snorted, or huffed, or showed in some way that he absolutely disliked the idea.

But Dante did nothing of that. He simply chuckled and crossed his legs, leaning his right ankle across his opposite knee before saying a simple ‘ _Maybe_ ’ that made Nero’s heart rate accelerate again. So that meant…

“Wait, you are bi?”, again, Nero was seriously about to kiss Nico when the woman asked that with a complete straightforward tone, although regretting it immediately after it, “I-I mean, it’s just that you had a super straight aura around you, right?”

The last question was addressed to Nero, so he simply nodded while trying to adopt his best face of ‘I-don’t-particularly-care-about-the-answer’. Also he realized that, again, they were asking question out of turn, but the rest seemed to have forgotten about that fact by then.

“Well, it’s true that all the people I dated have been women”, Dante admitted, leaning his elbow on the chair’s arm and his chin on his knuckles while continuing talking in a pretty light tone, “but if an insanely attractive guy showed interest, I don’t think I’d turn him down.”

“Yep, your incapacity to keep it inside your pants is well known in this group.”

Lady didn’t manage to avoid the napkin that Dante threw at her, who ended impacting against her face.

The keyboards player passed then the cards to Nico but before this one was able to take it, Vergil intervened.

“No, Lady. This turn Nero and Nico are out.”

Nero was about to curse, which caused Vergil to show a small grin. He should have known that Vergil didn’t let any mistake slip during the game, and that meant that his chances of being asked something in the current turn had just increased.

While the _Devil May Cry_ members took their cards Nero crossed his fingers under the table, hoping that Vergil’s luck was as bad as it had been until then.

When seeing Vergil getting a Diamond Queen, Nero managed to suppress a new curse while getting ready for whatever Vergil had in mind for him.

However, just when the bassist was about to ask something, Dante intervened.

“Hey, not so fast, brother”, Dante showed his Joker card with a smirk, “I think I win this time.”

“No, you don’t”, Vergil snapped way too fast, before clearing his throat to adopt a more calmed tone, “everyone knows that wild cards never count in this kind of games”

Dante simply looked at Lady, who hummed to herself before smiling widely.

“As the creator of this game, I say they will count from now on...”

Nero exhaled a subtle relieved sigh, but he realized he had relaxed too fast when Lady kept talking.

“...but Vergil has a point too, so in this case I think that it’s fair that Dante and Vergil think the question together”

“ _What_?”

Nero felt the tip of his ears turn red when everyone looked at him.

DAMN. He had said that aloud.

“Easy, kid”, Dante said with amusement, “we won’t ask anything _too_ bad.”

Nero insulted himself internally. Shit, he and his big mouth. Now the next question was going to surely be addressed to him. And damn, why was Vergil whispering something in Dante’s ear? Shit, he was fucked up for sure.

“Okay, we have our question”, Nero was expecting when Dante’s playful eyes fixed on him, but that didn’t prevent his nervousness from spreading even more, “right back at you kid: how many ladies have you dated?”

Nero gulped.

Well, on the one hand it was really good that he hadn’t been asked directly if he liked Dante, but on the other hand he didn’t plan to get out of the closet so soon…

Although what the hell: it was nothing to be embarrassed about. And even if he hadn’t wrapped his mind about doing something about his crush with Dante or wait a little to see if it magically disappeared, at least if he decided to go for the first option Dante wouldn’t misinterpret his possible advances (if someday he dared to carry them out).

“Oh my god, you have dated so many that you don’t remember?”

When hearing Nico’s impressed tone Nero realized that he had been silent for more time that he thought.

“No no”, he exhaled a chuckle, “just the contrary: I have dated none.”

After a small silence, all the group exhaled an incredulous ‘ _What?!_ ’ except Vergil, who didn’t seem surprised at all by the revelation.

“But how can that be?”, Lady exclaimed, “you are super cute!”

Nero didn’t know how to feel about being called ‘cute’, but since Lady had said it with all the good intention he simply accepted it.

“Wait a moment…”, Nero didn’t know why, but Dante’s tone warned him that the man was about to say something stupid before finishing the sentence, “...maybe you are one of those people who prefer to wait until marriage to--”

“Hell, no!”, Nero exclaimed unable to prevent a laughter. Dante’s reaction was to frown with confusion, so Nero proceeded to explain himself, “I meant that I have never dated a _woman_ ”

A new small silence fell in the VIP room, and Nero was about to laugh again when this time a unanimous understanding ‘ _Oooh_ ’ sounded.

“Okay, that explains a lot of things!”, Lady suddenly said, pointing at Nero with an accusing finger, “for that reason you weren’t nervous at all when eating alone with so many hot ladies!”

“Someone doesn’t need to be praised”, Trish joked, causing Lady to smile with confidence.

“I’m just stating a fact.”

“Then that guy V you mentioned before”, Dante suddenly inquired, “is he your boyfriend?”

Nero knew that it was a relatively normal question, but the fact that Dante was interested in his romantic life maybe meant something, although he was aware that it could easily be his hopes talking again.

“No, he’s just a close friend.”

“Really? Just that?”, Lady insisted, and Nero honestly didn’t know what had passed through his face but suddenly Lady’s eyes shined, “aha! You’re not telling all the truth!”

“Yes, I am!”, no, he wasn’t, Lady was right, but not feeling like sharing anything else than that he decided to play Vergil’s card, “and since I have answered Dante’s question already, I think it’s time for the next turn.”

Lady was about to protest and probably keep insisting when Dante suddenly intervened.

“Well, I think we have had enough cards for today”, he stood up and signaled with a wide gesture towards the pool table, “anyone wants to play? Nero?”

This one was taken by surprise when despite the general invitation, Dante’s eyes were on him.

“I haven't done it in a while.”

Okay, certainly this time he couldn't entirely blame Dante when this one's smile widened a little.

“I don't mind to teach you”, the guitarist winked before signaling the pool table again this time with his head, “come on, show me what you got.”

Yep, confirmed, Nero thought while standing up: Dante had the innate ability to make the simplest sentence to sound as an innuendo. Although not that he hadn't done it better this time.

When Nero reached the table Dante had already taken two sticks and was offering one to him.

“So…”, Dante began to say while placing the pool balls on the table, “...you have survived Lady's first degree interrogation. You are tougher than you look.”

Nero simply snorted while Dante inclined himself over the table to give a powerful hit that made the balls impact in several directions of the table, pocketing one of the stripes balls.

“Stripes for me”, Dante announced, taking a couple of steps back before sustaining the stick over his shoulders, “your turn now.”

Nero observed the table for some moments and did his shot, making the 6 solid ball enter one of the holes cleanly.

“Thought you hadn't played in a while”, Dante said with an ironic tone that made Nero show a small smile.

“Maybe it was just luck”, Nero commented while choosing his next ball, managing to pocket it as well and causing Dante to whistle with amusement.

“I forgot I'm playing with--”

“Don't.”

Dante chuckled when Nero stopped him from calling him with another absurd nickname. Nero failed the next ball so it was Dante's turn again, but instead of playing his turn directly Dante began to use some chalk on the extreme of his pool stick.

“Sorry if that last question caught you off guard”, Dante suddenly said in a more serious tone, and Nero realized that applying chalk had just been an excuse to talk to him, “and if it made you tell us something you didn’t want to share.”

“It's okay”, Nero said sincerely, beginning to tap softly with the stick on the floor, “I wasn’t planning to hide it anyway. The topic just wasn't brought up until now.”

“Until Vergil brought it up you mean”, Dante commented with irony, causing Nero to open more his eyes in surprise.

“So the question was Vergil’s idea?”

“Yep”, Dante made his shot, successfully pocketing another ball, before lowering his tone a little so that just Nero could hear him, “my question was going to be for Nico, but I decided that I didn’t want that Lady killed me.”

Nero exhaled a nervous laugh. So Dante had noticed too that something was going on between Lady and Nico, which meant that probably the main reason the guitarist hadn't noticed his crush on him was because up till that point Dante had assumed he was straight. He better be extra careful from then on in that case.

“So you think Lady and her--”

“Oh, I’m sure of it”, Dante leaned again over the table to make a new shot and Nero had to really focus on not diverting his eyes to certain part of the guitarist’s anatomy, “Lady never bothers to hide when she is interested in someone, and Nico caught her eye since the audition. And for the way Nico has responded during the lunch, it looks mutual.”

Nero nodded to himself, hoping that his light discomfort for being talking about crushes with his crush wasn’t too evident.

“I don’t know if you know this”, Nero said while approaching the table when Dante failed the next ball, “but people on the Internet had the theory that Lady was a lesbian because, besides Patty, she was the only member of the group you hadn’t been associated with.”

Dante began to laugh when hearing Nero’s comment, the sound causing him to be about to fail the next shot.

“Damn, maybe Vergil isn’t completely wrong when reproaching me that I fool around too much.”

 _No, he isn’t_ , Nero thought a little bitterly, but he perfectly knew it was his jealousy talking so he pushed the stupid thought away.

“But the fans weren’t entirely wrong”, Dante momentarily cursed when Nero managed to pocket two balls in the same shot before continuing, “in fact the only member of the group I know it's surely straight is Vergil, since he has been with Saya for yea--”

Dante shut up but it was too late, his face being the perfect image of the ' _Oh, shit_ ’ expression.

“Saya?”, Nero repeated casually with a smirk that made Dante gulp.

“Please, don't tell him I told you. He will kill me this time for sure.”

Nero hummed to himself, pretending to think and enjoying probably a little too much the way Dante looked about to begin to sweat, which probably caused him to fail his shot.

“Don't worry”, Nero made a gesture of zipping his own mouth, “my lips are sealed.”

Dante exhaled a relieved sigh.

“Thank you, kid.”

“But I will remember it in case I need to blackmail you someday.”

Dante’s next shot obviously missed, causing the guitarist to half-close his eyes at Nero before humming as if he had just discovered something.

“So your angelic face is just for show.”

“Ange-I _don’t_ have an angelic face!”, Nero snapped, his tone so offended that caused Dante to show a mocking smile.

“Sorry, but the number of devils in the band is covered already”, Dante continued with a joking apologetic tone, “but don’t worry: we don’t mind to have an angel in our lines”

Nero rolled his eyes, the pool momentarily forgotten for either him and the guitarist.

“I can’t believe you have success with that kind of lines.”

Nero knew it wasn’t clever to say that, that he theoretically was trying that Dante didn’t notice his feelings, and that, basically, he was playing with fucking fire by bringing up that topic again, but hopefully Dante just chuckled.

“That’s because I’m not trying seriously. If I wanted to seduce you…”, Dante slowly smirked, “... believe me that I would put more effort into it."

Nero was perfectly aware that Dante was just going along with the joke _he_ had initiated when using that flirtatious tone, but he suffered a small shiver down his spine nevertheless. Hopefully, his lower half behaved this time and Nero could answer properly with one of his typical snorts.

“Better keep those efforts for the pool”, Nero found himself saying, inclining over the table with his eyes still on Dante’s ones, “because I’m going to kick your ass.”

Nero’s next shot put him on the lead, and in another two rounds he won the game, causing Dante to exclaim a frustrated ‘ _Damn it_ ’.

“So…”, Nero mimicked Dante’s first position, by placing the stick over his shoulders and his hands around it, “...you’ve had enough already or you want to try the rematch, _old man_?”

Nero enjoyed way too much the way Dante exhaled a long, deep breath, and even more how the guitarist rolled even more the sleeves of his black t-shirt until they reached almost his elbows, as if doing that would guarantee his next victory.

“What a question, kid”, Dante said with a fired up tone, his clear blue eyes shining for the challenge, “I’m always up for another round.”

Nero felt his stomach make a new flip-flop.

Definitely those innuendos were going to be the death of him.

And he was being a utter idiot for not being more concerned about that fact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the ones who may have played "Walking Dead: The Final Season" Telltale game, the cards game of this chapter will sound familiar, because I shamelessly took it from there xDD And also I apologize if some of the pools terms weren't correct because my vocabulary of the matter is pretty limited ^^U


	6. Music video

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If someone has any knowledge about the technologies related to stage that are mentioned in this chapter, apologizes in advance for all the possible inaccuracies ^^U

After Nero managed to beat Dante again (to this one’s big disappointment), the rest of the band decided to join them in the next game as well, resulting in Nero, Nico and Lady going against Trish and the twins. However, if there was something everyone seemed to forget at that moment was that Dante and Vergil _always_ got carried away when competition was involved, which eventually resulted in everyone playing more games than anticipated because neither Dante or Vergil were good at admitting defeat, and which lead to everyone abandoning the restaurant in a hurry when Trish gasped, suddenly remembering that they had agreed to record more footage that afternoon.

No one but Trish was surprised when Dante and Vergil practically teleported out of the restaurant, preferring to spend money in a taxi rather than ‘ _dying ridiculously in a second-hand car_ ’ in Vergil’s own words, and even if Lady’s face indicated that she wanted to go with the twins, eventually she also joined Nero and Nico when these ones summoned up the courage to enter the kamikaze car.

Nero realized they should have chosen the taxi option when he almost broke the car’s ceiling handler with the force he was using to grab it, as if his life depended on it (which probably did).

Against all odds, they survived the trip and arrived at the office just ten minutes late. Nero suppressed the urge of kissing the ground when finally stepping out of the car and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the wings mechanism until it was time to go back home.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you there?”, Trish asked with an unsure tone when this one passed by the recording studio to say goodbye. He managed not to laugh when seeing Lady, Nico and Dante effusively shaking their heads negatively behind her and answered with a small smile.

“Nah, thanks. The bus is fine and leaves me really close home”, _and I don’t want to die_ , he thought but didn’t say.

Nero waved his hand towards the rest before abandoning the recording studio. He was about to cross the double doors leading to the main room when he heard steps behind him.

“One second, kid”

Nero suppressed a resigned sigh before turning around to face Dante.

“Yes, old man?”

Nero smiled innocently when the guitarist snorted softly. One thing was that he had a crush on Dante but another thing was that he accepted to be called like a child so easily.

“Listen, do you have plans for the next weekend?”

Nero’s heart stopped for a tiny moment, and he actually had to gulp subtly before talking again.

“Not for now”, he was really proud when his voice sounded so normal, “why?”

“Well, remember the visit to the film studio that we commented yesterday?”

Nero suppressed a self-mocking laugh. It was obvious that Dante wasn’t going to ask him out all of sudden, so the fact that such a thought had crossed his mind made him feel a little stupid.

“Yes, the people in charge of building the stage for your next concert are there right now and you were going to meet them to check everything worked fine”, Nero frowned lightly, “but I thought it would be in two weeks”

“Yeah, that was the initial plan”, Dante confirmed, settling a hand behind his own neck while the other ended on his hip, “but Morrison just confirmed us a moment ago that we are going to make a collaboration with another group. They want Lady and me to appear in their next music video and it turns out they are going to film it in that same studio this Saturday”, Dante looked at Nero with an hesitant expression, “so do you think you could work on the flying system this week to have it more or less ready? To make the most of this trip and talk with the people of the stage”

Nero crossed his arms while averting his eyes, lost in his thoughts for several seconds before looking at Dante again.

“I think I can, but I probably won’t be able to advance much on the wings”

Dante’s smile widened before nodding.

“No problem with that. Thank you, kid. I promise that the next weekend I steal from you it will be to treat you to something”

Nero knew it was a perfectly casual invitation with zero romantic interest involved, but still the perspective of him and Dante going out without work in the middle didn’t sound bad at all.

“I’ll take your word for it”, Nero found himself saying, “but I hope it’s a place as fancy as this afternoon restaurant”

“Oh come on, cut me some slack! If I’m the only one paying that’s not fair”

“You should have known better when doing the offer”, Nero risked himself to push his luck a little, “don’t think women are the only exigent ones around”

The guitarist exhaled a short laugh when Nero winked at him.

“I’ll make sure not to forget it”, Dante smiled and palmed Nero’s arm once, “see you on Monday, Nero”

This one simply nodded while Dante approached two fingers to his own temple as a last goodbye gesture before walking back to the recording studio.

Nero exhaled a soft sigh and turned around as well to leave, thinking that maybe it wasn’t that bad that Dante usually called him ‘kid’. Because if his heart kept skipping stupid beats when the guitarist called him by his name, he would eventually be in serious trouble.

* * *

Nero practically slept throughout all the Sunday, waking up when it was past lunchtime and just because Shadow decided to sneak in his room and jump on him, causing Nero to lose all the air of his lungs when the panther landed on his stomach.

Even if it was his free day Nero already began to think about how to fix the [mechanism](https://www.rockexotica.com/media/wysiwyg/rockexotica/product/butterfly/parts-id-sheet.jpg) in the stage. When seeing him working in his room so focused instead of playing video-games as he used to do in his free time, V pointed out that his ‘infatuation with Dante’ was really positive since it was turning him into a hard-working model employee.

Nero would have liked to cleverly reply to the poet but eventually decided not to: first, because V had been nice enough to cook again for him when he woke up (protesting the entire time of course), and second, because certainly there wasn’t much to reply, since it was true that it had been a while since he had felt so motivated about doing something, although not just because Dante was around as V had teasingly suggested.

That was probably the motive why the next week seemed to fly by, which wasn’t entirely good because on Thursday Nero was beginning to doubt to be able to have the improvements of the mechanism ready by Saturday. In fact, Dante probably chose the worst time to pass by the main room to ask Nero how was he doing, in the exact moment when he was up the ladder fighting to adjust one of the nails that refused to cooperate.

“Everything okay up there?”

The curse Nero practically shouted when the nail ended crooked once again caused Dante to half-close his eyes with a pained expression, while Nero took a deep long breath uselessly trying to calm down.

“Uhm, do you need some help or--?”

Nero’s fury was exclusively directed to the metallic evil nails that were making his life impossible at the moment, so he wasn’t aware of the murderous glare that he accidentally threw at Dante until seeing this one shut up at once before raising his hands in a conciliatory way, talking next in a way that indicated that the guitarist had noticed it wasn’t the best time to talk to Nero.

“Never mind. I’ll let you do your thing”

Nero nodded a couple of times, forcing a tense smile that became more real when Dante raised his fist towards him in an pretty useless but well-intentioned cheering gesture. 

It took Nero a good amount of time, sweat and almost tears but when he _finally_ managed that the flying mechanism was securely fixed and also allowed to turn on every direction, the relieved ‘ _YES_!’ he cried was heard even in the recording studio, causing everyone to run towards the main room except Vergil, who kept playing apparently unbothered by Nero’s success although he later muttered a short ‘ _Congratulations_ ’ when they left the office.

The next day, everyone in the band made a stop in their schedule to test the fly system, since during the concerts there were at least a couple of people in charge of controlling the flying performer's movements via the wires hidden behind the stage, so Nero couldn’t handle that alone. While Trish and Lady strapped Nico into the device that would allow her to fly and adjusted her harnesses, Dante and Vergil were the ones controlling the wires while Nero insisted on remaining at the top of the ladder to verify that the mechanism worked properly.

As it usually happened with last minutes task, the whole testing lasted the entire morning when theoretically it was just going to take a couple of hours, but despite the delays and a couple of unexpected events like a harness having to be replaced and Nero almost losing his step on the ladder, they managed to leave everything working before lunch.

“Are you sure you are okay, kid?”, Dante asked for like twentieth time when Nero finally stepped down the ladder. The guitarist hadn’t stopped asking him in regular intervals after this one’s little scare so Vergil suddenly intervening in the conversation was something expected.

“Unless we have missed something in the last two minutes I bet he is”

Dante half-closed his eyes at his older brother when this one clearly hinted he was acting like a mother hen, which was just confirmed when Lady cackled playfully, causing Nico to exhale a laugh and Trish to bite her lower lip not to do the same.

“Yes, I’m okay...”, Nero answered Dante once again nevertheless, initially taking pity on the man who was being laughed at before changing his mind, “... _mom_ ”

It had been a jerk move but Nero couldn’t help to smile teasingly when Dante’s mouth hanged slack while the others laughed. Even Vergil allowed himself to show a hint of an amused smile while Dante exhaled a defeated sigh.

“Someone can’t be considerate these days”, he said with a light sulking tone that made Nero want to equally laugh and kiss the guitarist right there and then. But probably the last option wasn’t wise if he wanted to keep his crush in secret, he thought ironically, so he contented himself with doing the first.

After lunch, Nero spent another hour dismounting the mechanism of the flying system since they would need to show it to the people of the filming studio, and after spending another hour searching the old design plans of it until finally finding them in Lady’s room (no one knew how they ended there), everyone decided to call it a day, since the ones visiting the filming studio had agreed to meet pretty early in the morning.

Of course, Nero’s period of being in time in a row had to be broken the next morning, when his alarm clock sounded in a too low volume, causing him to wake up almost an hour late.

“Shit shit shit _shit_!”

When Nero stomped inside the living room still half-dressed V didn’t even avert his face from the screen of his laptop, pretty used already to that kind of thing happening more than not.

“So your record of being in time is one week. Quite impressive”

Nero was busy beating his records of ‘ _Shit_ ’s said within a minute so he didn't answer. The sofa made a suspicious creaking sound when Nero dropped on it to begin to tie his boots, causing Griffon to caw in protest and V to throw a reproaching look at him.

“Fuck, can you call a taxi?”, Nero said, while fighting to tie out his other boot at the same time that Shadow decided it was the best time to play with his shoe laces, “damn it, Shadow, _not now_! V, get him off me!”

V exhaled an exaggerated patient sigh but he did stand up to grab Shadow with a hand while calling for a taxi through his mobile with the other.

Nero was pretty sure he had cursed at least a hundredth of times when he finally abandoned the apartment. He had climbed down half of the stairs when he cursed again and began to climb back up, realizing he had forgotten his mobile and wallet. He was raising his arm to knock at his apartment door when this one automatically opened and V appeared in the frame, with Nero’s mobile and wallet on his hand and a resigned expression on his face.

“Thanks!”

V simply rolled his eyes before closing the door again while Nero finally reached the street, almost throwing himself inside the taxi waiting for him. Since he didn’t want to risk to tell the actual direction of _Devil May Cry_ office, he made the man stop in the nearest street and covered the last meters in a run, 10 minutes later than the hour they had agreed to meet.

“Sorry”, Nero exhaled breathlessly while approaching the car that was already out of the garage, inside which he could see Morrison on the driver’s seat and Nico on the copilot one, “I overslept”

“It’s okay”, Nico signaled the back seats, still empty, “the others have just called saying that they will be here in five minutes”

“Those two are just on time when Trish and Vergil control them”, Morrison said with a resigned tone while Nero took the back right seat of the car, “so probably those 5 minutes will become 15”

They were 20 at the end, and although part of Nero regretted having skipped breakfast to end waiting, the vision of Lady and Dante almost tripping over in their hurry to reach the car was rather worth it to see.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses”, Morrison immediately said when Dante and Lady began to speak at the same time trying to justify themselves, “go inside and put your belts on”

Lady and Dante had barely sat down on the middle and left seats respectively when Morrison began to drive. Nero learned then that driving dangerously seemed to be an indispensable requirement to be in _Devil May Cry_ , because the way Morrison was avoiding cars when they finally entered one of the main streets caused Nero to hold his breath in more than one occasion.

However, one of the advantages of having experienced Trish’s driving was that as crazily as Morrison or Lucia could drive, at least they respected the basic traffic regulations such as not ignoring semaphores and not driving on the wrong side of the road, so by when they left the city behind Nero had already got used to it.

Also, he was also grateful that Lady acted as a barrier between him and Dante because almost every time that Morrison turned directions a little brusquely, the keyboard player ended half-lying against Nero, and although the idea of Dante pressing his body against him was something that had visited his fantasies in several occasions, he preferred to spend a not-stressing trip since it was going to take them almost two hours to arrive.

Morrison managed to reduce that time though, and just an hour and half later the car had stopped in front of the [filming studio](http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wfae/files/styles/x_large/public/201406/EUE_ILM_Aerial.jpg).

“See, Morrison?”, Dante said with a cheery tone, palming Morrison’s shoulder from his seat, “there was no need to panic: at the end we’ve been in time”

While the guitarist stepped out of the car Morrison made a gesture of strangling him that caused Nico and Nero to muffle a laugh before joining Dante and Lady outside.

They were stopped at the entrance of the complex by a security guard that, after confirming Morrison, Dante and Lady’s identities, allowed them to enter. A couple of employees helped them to extract the box with the mechanism that Nero had adapted and placed it on a trolley, also providing them with identifying cards that everyone put around their necks.

Nero had to suppress a smile when seeing the text ‘ _Name: Nero - Association: Devil May Cry’_ written on it. Definitely that item was going to be added to his collection.

“Alright, so we separate here for now”, Dante looked at Nero, “the people of the stage are in building 3. Lady and I will be in building…”

“...1B”, Lady and Morrison completed with patience when Dante made a pause that betrayed he didn’t know the place.

“Yeah, that one”, Dante continued, “so you can meet us there when you finish”

“Wait, so you are not coming with us?”, Nero asked with surprise, causing Dante to shake his head with a confident smile.

“I’m pretty sure you can handle it on your own”, Dante winked at them, “see you later!”

Nero’s surprise still lasted after Dante, Lady and Morrison began to walk leaving Nico and him with the trolley. He could count with the fingers of his hands the times in which his clients have left him completely alone while working, since most part of them preferred to regularly check on him to make sure he was doing his job right, so the trust that the group (and particularly Dante) had in him despite having been working for them only for a week was still surprising, at the same time that pleasant.

“Wooow, this place is huge!”, Nico exclaimed while looking around, “I hope we have time to explore a little--OH MY GOD!”, Nico suddenly grabbed Nero’s sweater and began to shake it rapidly, “look at _that_!”

Nico was pointing at a particular spot of the complex where some people were filming the last episode of a pretty famous series, since Nero also recognized some of the actors. It was a luck that Morrison wasn’t with them because reaching building 3 took them way more than it should, since every now and then they stopped when pinpointing someone famous to respectively fangirl and fanboy about it.

When they finally entered their designated building, Nero was determined to work the fastest and most efficient he could to have time to investigate around because, again, he didn’t know when he could have a chance to be in a place like that.

Building 3 was huge, but the stage that was mounted there was hard to miss so Nero and Nico immediately went there, avoiding the best they could all the people who was working around, transporting things from one place to another and constructing others.

Nero and Nico decided to approach the man who seemed less busy at the moment and introduced themselves. The employee called for the one who was in charge, and Nero wasn’t very surprised when this one looked rather unconvinced, probably because that man was twice his age and he was aware that some people seemed to have reservations in trusting in the younger people’s capacities. It was not the first time that it happened to him and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

However, Nero just needed to extract the design plans from the blueprint case hanging from his shoulder and to begin to speak with confidence about them so that the man’s doubts about Nero’s abilities completely vanished.

From then on everything went rather smoothly: the man explained Nero how the installation of the [flying system](https://northbaystageandscreen.com/2018/05/05/petaluma-teen-is-learning-to-fly-as-wendy-in-peter-pan/) had been implemented in the stage, showed it to him, and after discussing the modifications that had to be done they got to work. The integration of the mechanism that Nero and Nico had brought was a little tricky but they eventually managed to make it work, investing the rest of the time in checking that everything worked by making Nico fly, causing the woman to be smiling almost all the time because she was clearly having fun.

Also, the man took his time teaching Nero some tricks to control Nico’s movement better, and how to act in certain cases if the system suddenly failed. Nero made sure to take note of all that, and when three hours later Nico and him abandoned the stage area the man even asked for his business card.

“Dude, you really impressed him”, Nico said when they were out, enclosing an arm around Nero’s shoulders, “so, what do we do now?”

“Eat”, Nero said automatically, causing the woman to bark a laugh before nodding in agreement.

Since they had left the trolley in the building 3 so that the people of the stage could test the mechanism some more, Nero and Nico had more freedom to move and it didn’t take them much to find the lunch area, consisting of several food trucks and some tables to sit and eat. Nero discovered then that Nico’s appetite was as monstrous as him because she ordered something in almost each truck. Definitely if she and Lady ended being in a date, the restaurant that they attended would make them VIP clients in the first visit.

“Mission Eating completed”, Nico made a slurping sound with the straw not to leave any remains of the smoothie she had ordered, “any idea about what to see first?”

Nero reclined back against his chair, interlacing his fingers behind his head for a moment while thinking if his suggestion would be suspicious or not, eventually deciding to simply go for it.

“I’m curious about the music video they are recording”, he confessed, “do you know what it’s about?”

Nico shook her head, extracting the straw from her drink to lick the extreme of it in a gesture that certain keyboard player would have loved to see.

“Nope. Since the song hasn’t been released yet they didn’t give much details. I just know that Lady will be playing the role of a demon”

“How appropriate”, Nero joked, tilting his head a little to the side next, “wanna check it out?”

“Hell, yeah”

* * *

Building 1B was completely different from the one Nero and Nico had just visited. The space inside was divided in multiple areas where different scenarios had been set, most part of them belonging to different house rooms such as a dining room and a bedroom, and several cameras and spotlights had been set in each location.

Nero had barely time to take a look around though because at that moment a familiar feminine figure approached them.

“Hi!”, Lady stopped just in front of them. She had more makeup than when she had entered and was simply dressing in a rather light white robe that hinted that she just wore her underwear under it, “just in time! They are finishing with Dante right now but we will begin to film really soon”

“You are going to begin to film now?”, Nero said with surprise, since Nico seemed to have difficulties to stare at Lady and talk at the same time.

“Yep, we are going with delay”, Lady said with a tired tone before lowering her tone, “and also the fact that the group’s agent has spent a damn hour talking about the deep meaning of the song hasn’t helped either”

“An _hour_?”, Nico repeated, apparently having recovered her voice again, “jeez, the song is that difficult to understand?”

Lady shrugged exaggeratedly.

“Beats me. For me the sense is pretty clear but maybe I’m a bigger genius that I thought”, Lady grabbed then Nico and Nero’s wrists respectively, “come. I will show it to you”

The keyboards player practically dragged them towards the other side of the room, where a small control room with a desk and several screens had been set.

Lady greeted the person inside and charmingly asked if she could use the computer for a moment. The man looked a little hesitant at first but Lady’s wide smile seemed to do the trick, causing the man to agree with a stutter while allowing her to sit in the chair to access her email, selecting the last one she had received.

“Okay, here it is. Let’s see if you get the super deep meaning”

The first instrumental part of the [song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSsTS6c8KOU) was all Nero needed to recognize the band that _Devil May Cry_ was collaborating with. He had listened to some of their songs and he liked them quite a lot, since the main vocalist had a pretty amazing voice.

Regarding the song he was listening to, there were some verses that he honestly didn’t understand completely, but when reaching the chorus and knowing what Nico had said about Lady’s role in the music video, there weren’t many doubts about the song’s interpretation.

“It’s about a demon that seduces someone?”, Nero said more than asked when the song finished, causing Lady to applaud.

“See? What I said. _Devil May Cry_ must be full of genius”

“But then…”, Nico intervened, “...that means that you…”

“...I’m going to play the role of a sexy demon”, Lady smiled widely, “cool, right?”

Nero threw a side glance at Nico. The woman barely hesitated in answering with an impressed ‘ _Oh, yeah! Cool as hell!_ ’, but her enthusiasm didn’t sound as sincere as the other times, and for the way Lady looked a little surprised for a moment it seemed that she noticed it too. He didn’t know why but he had the feeling that his reaction when hearing Dante’s role was going to be similar to Nico’s one.

“Any sin you want to confess?”

Nero felt his blood suddenly traveling south when hearing a familiar masculine voice whispering that sentence in his ear. He turned around with his heart trying hard to leave his chest and his eyes opened wide when seeing Dante in front of him dressing like a _priest_.

“Tsk, you’re not easy to scare either”

Nero would die to answer that startling someone and almost provoking a hard on were rather different things, but of course he couldn’t do that.

“Wow, the habit looks better than expected on you", Lady intervened with a laugh, causing Dante to huff.

“It’s tight as hell”, Dante rolled his shoulders, trying to adjust the clothing to feel more comfortable but failed to do so, “at least I won’t wear it too much”

Nero didn’t know why the hell his brain decided it was a good idea to ask for more information.

“So you will be playing two roles?”, Dante looked at Nero slightly confused, “you’ve just said you won’t wear this costume much, so what else are you going to wear?”

“Aah”, Dante said finally understanding, before chuckling with amusement, “no, I’m just playing the priest role that is seduced by a demon disguised as his fellow parishioner”, Nero couldn’t help to show an impressed expression, which caused Dante to show an offended one, “what’s with that face? Vergil is not the only one who knows fancy words, you know?”

“You liar: you know that word because Gloria used it in the meeting!”, Lady exclaimed, causing Dante to hush at her, making her laugh again.

“So that means that Lady is going to ‘seduce’ you?”, Nero asked, trying that the relief wasn’t too evident in his voice, but he realized that he had let his hopes up too soon when Dante shook his head.

“No, we are in different stories: Lady is a demon that seduces a corrupt rich aristocrat and Gloria is the one who seduces the evil human priest”, Dante playfully pointed at himself with his thumb, “aka me”

“Dante!”

At that moment a feminine voice called for the guitarist’s name, and Nero deduced that the tall, voluptuous and dark-skinned woman with short, white hair that approached Dante while wearing a robe similar to Lady was that ‘Gloria’ they had been talking about. Nero deduced she was famous too but the only thing he could think at the moment was that she and Dante…

“Yes, love?”, okay, seriously, why the fuck Dante had to use that appellative with _all_ the women?

“The director has said that we will begin with the hot scenes”, the woman spoke with a completely natural tone that made Nero suppress the urge of gritting his teeth, “but he isn’t sure if we should begin with the confessional scene or with the bed scene, do you have any preferences?”

Okay, definitely Nero didn’t want to hear anything more, and much less to see it.

“Well, it seems you are busy then”, damn, his tone couldn’t sound faker but Nero hoped his (just light) tense smile made for it, “so warn us when you have finished”

“Yep, meanwhile we’ll be outside doing...stuff”

Nero suppressed the urge of facepalm when hearing Nico’s horrible excuse, and not daring to look at Dante to see the man suspecting about his behavior he simply threw a general ‘ _Bye_ ’ towards the rest before abandoning the room, followed close by Nico.

It took them their good five minutes to be able to leave the building, having to make detours not to bother the people working and filming, and once outside Nero couldn’t prevent to let out a long, light frustrated sigh, just at the exact moment in which Nico did the same thing.

They both interchanged a surprised look when that happened, remained silent for a moment, and when they both smiled with resignation Nero realized that, somehow, that simple exhalation of air had been enough to put their cards on the table.

“So...not looking forward to see Dante play the sexy priest role?”

“Yes, as much as you want to see Lady play the sexy demon role”

Nico began to laugh while Nero simply exhaled a new shorter sigh.

“Man, it sucks”, Nico commented when she calmed down, “I mean, I LOVE working with them and I’m really happy for being part of this but sometimes just... _AAARGH_!! You know?”

Nero chucked when hearing Nico’s super explanation.

“Yep, I know”, they began to walk side by side, “but at least in your case she shows some interest”

“Mmm, I’m not so sure”, Nero threw an ‘ _Oh, really?_ ’ expression at Nico, causing this one to look at him with confusion, “what?”

“Just one word: _tattoos_ ”

“WAIT, was it that evident that I was trying to flirt in the restaurant?!”

“Yep, it was”

“Oh my god”, Nico covered her head with her hands, causing Nero to begin to laugh, “shit, and you think she noticed?”

“Probably. But as I say, she seemed interested. And besides, you spent like a lot of time talking together after that”

“Well, you played two games of pool with Da- _him_ alone”, Nico corrected herself in time, “and he clearly said that he wouldn’t say no if an attractive guy showed interest in him, so you have a chance!”

“Yeah, to have some casual sex maybe, but I pass”

“Mmm, you have a point there. He doesn’t strike me as a guy who is into serious relationships”

“If his most serious one lasted two weeks I bet he isn’t”

Nico chuckled, palming Nero’s shoulder when hearing his resigned tone.

“Well, it seems that Mission Checking-Music-Video was a failure so let’s do something else to forget about our disastrous love lives. What time is it by the way? Because I think there was some kind of recording stuff planned in building 2 around 12 p.m. Maybe we could take a look”

Nero was about to answer Nico when his heart skipped a beat.

“Shit”, Nero palmed the front pockets of his trousers, the back pocket, and then exhaled a groan, “my phone”

“Wait, you lost it?!”

“No”, Nero cursed again, “I’m sure it’s in the control room. I’ll be right back”

Nero half-ran towards the building 1B once again, being a new odyssey to be able to reach the control room without bumping into someone.

“Sorry, I think I forgot--”, the employee that Lady had convinced with her smile simply signaled with a patient expression at Nero’s phone on the table, in the same place he had left him when listening to the music video song, “thanks”

Nero’s intention after recovering his mobile was to come back with Nico as fast as possible, but his bad luck decided to strike at that moment to make him hear Dante’s laugh coming from one of the nearest rooms.

He gulped, knowing it was a bad idea (a _really bad_ one) to check whatever was happening in the room but, as V occasionally said to bother him, intelligence had never been his strong point, so Nero decided to reaffirm that fact by following the source of the sound, remaining at a prudent distance of the room from where Dante’s voice had sounded so that he wasn’t seen by the rest.

Of course, he regretted doing so.

The scene that was being recorded seemed to be the ‘confessional’ one. Dante was sitting on the priest’s seat, his previous buttoned-up habit now opened to reveal his neck, chest and part of his abs, and perched on his lap while giving her back to the others was Gloria, her arms around Dante’s neck while this one had casually settled his arm around her lower back. They both were listening to the instructions that the director was giving them, occasionally intervening in the conversation as well without giving major importance to the position they both were in.

Nero knew it was all a set up. He also knew that probably the final music video would eventually ending being suggestive without any explicit content, like the other music videos he had seen of the band. And of course, he knew that Dante and Gloria, such as Lady, were just professionals doing their job.

But still, that knowledge didn’t stop his stomach from tightening unpleasantly when the director shouted ‘ _Action_!’ and Gloria and Dante began to kiss, Dante’s head tilting a little to the side pretending to deepen it (or maybe actually doing it) while softly pressing Gloria’s body against him with a natural movement that obviously came from experience.

The kiss barely lasted 5 seconds, and when it finished and the director announced it was a good shot Dante simply exclaimed a childishly proud ‘ _Oh, yeah!_ ’ before high-fiving Gloria, which just showed that as Nero had suspected there wasn’t anything between those two.

But that didn’t make Nero feel better, and when he finally abandoned the building for a second time his attempts of hiding his sour mood failed rather miserably because when seeing him, Nico’s expression changed into an understanding one.

“You saw something?”

Nero’s first impulse was to lie, before realizing it was pretty stupid at that point.

“Yeah”, he admitted, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.

Nico sighed again and enclosed an arm around Nero’s shoulders, beginning to walk again in opposite direction to the building.

“Come on, I will treat you to some lunch”

“What?!”, Nero momentarily forgot his bad mood when hearing Nico wasn’t joking, “but we have eaten just a moment ago!”

“Believe me, dude: food is the best way to deal with unrequited love stuff. Aaand it’s much healthier than drugs or alcohol at least”

Nero snorted, but he was smiling when talking next in a teasing tone.

“Don’t blame me if your harnesses break for extra weight”

Certainly, he deserved the friendly punch Nico threw at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the lack of interaction between Dante and Nero in this chapter: initially I had planned to write a scene with them after the 'music-song' part when I had an idea that I think it's better, but the chapter will have gotten too long otherwise so I decided to stop it here ^^U Will try to update the next ASAP as always <3 :)


	7. Trip for two

“ _Ah..._! God... _yes_!”

“Damn...can’t get enough of you, babe”

“Oh fuck, _don’t stop_... _!_ ”

“Hah...wasn’t planning to... harder?”

“Yes _...shit,_ almost there, _keep going!_ ”

“Like _this_?”

“Fuck, _yes_!”

“ _Ngh…_! Come on, Ner _\--_ ”

 

 _\----_ **_17 hours ago_ ** _\----_ **_  
_ **

 

 “Look, sir, I’m really sorry but I can’t delay the train any longer”

Nero suppressed the urge to curse once again, trying to keep calm while talking to the station employee since the man was the last person to blame for the current situation he was facing: one foot on the metallic stairs leading to the train and the other still on the platform in a last attempt to stop what seemed unavoidable at that point.

A week and half had passed since they visited the filming studio and during that time Nero had come back to work on the wings prototype. He had managed to finish it a couple of days ago, and since the next week the group was going to be too busy _and_ the next one it was already the concert, they decided to make a one-day visit to the city where the event was going to be held. The stage had already been built there and, although the wings were not finished yet, the mechanism to move them was completely functional, so they decided to go there to test if it could be combined with the flying system, and also to verify that this one also worked correctly.

Since Dante and Vergil were the ones who would wear the wings at some point of the concert and Nero was the creator of the new version, it was decided that they three would do the trip alone, while the ladies focused on making an all-girls collaboration with Lucia and Patty, during which Nico would re-record some old songs with them. Nero and the twins had agreed on meeting at 6.50 on the station, ten minutes prior to the train’s departure, and now there he was, wondering if maybe something had happened to them because if Dante was the only one in coming that situation could have been understandable, but _Vergil_? He doubted the serious bassist arrived more than 15 minutes late unless it was a case of force majeure.

“Listen, they have to be about to arrive. I swear”, Nero tried a last time, unable to blame the man for looking at him with an impatient unconvinced expression because not even him believed his words, “just give them a couple of more minutes and--”

“That’s exactly what you’ve said two minutes ago, sir. _And_ another five minutes ago. So, if you don’t want me to call for the security guards, you better decide if you want to enter or not this train in 10 seconds”

Nero was beginning to worry about the possibility of the twins having suffered an accident on their way to the station when he pinpointed Dante’s familiar figure practically risking his well-being by running down the escalator, while dragging a gigantic suitcase behind him which probably carried the wings Nero had modified.

“There! It’s him!”

When Dante finally reached them Nero’s first impulse was to shout at him for the damn stressing wait, but when seeing that this one’s expression didn’t look better than his, Nero simply frowned with confusion.

“Wait, where’s Vergil?”

“Soon dead”

Dante’s threatening tone lost all its effect for how breathless he sounded, so Nero deduced that probably the guitarist had been running a good while before reaching the station, and that maybe Vergil had something to do with that.

“Sorry for the wait”, Dante then said to the employee, who was looking at the guitarist with his mouth and eyes opened wide, “could you help me with this?”

“O-Of course!”, after grabbing Dante’s suitcase the man had the nerve to look at Nero with a reproachful expression, “you could have told me sooner who we were waiting for”

Nero was opening his mouth to reply something not precisely polite when Dante pushed him softly inside the train, probably detecting his irritation.

He honestly doubted that Dante’s ‘incognito mode’ (as he called it) was enough to allow them go unnoticed, since it simply consisted of a white cowboy hat and a vibrant red scarf surrounding his neck, but against all odds no one besides the station employee recognized the guitarist while walking through the train car and they managed to reach their seats without any incidents.

“Finally”, Dante panted, dropping on his seat while Nero sat down as well.

“So, about Vergil…”

“Oh, yeah: he’s not coming”

Nero had to wait a couple of seconds before talking again, not to sound nervous at all for the perspective of spending the day completely alone with Dante.

“Why?”

“No idea. He received a call when we were on our way here and he suddenly asked the taxi driver to take him to the airport, leaving me in the damn middle of the road. He didn’t bother to tell me where he was going as usual, but I think it had something to do with Saya”, Dante seemed to have forgotten his previous desire of murdering his brother because he smiled with amusement, “he would kill me for saying this but his expression turns all lovey-dovey when talking to her”

“ _Really_?”

“Well, the change is rather subtle: he frowns a little less”, Dante looked at Nero offended when this one couldn’t suppress a laugh, “hey, for him that’s a lot!”

Nero simply looked at Dante with a fake convinced expression that caused the guitarist to shake his head with patience before talking again.

“Anyway, what matter is that for once I have a decent excuse for being late”

“You still could have called to warn me”, Nero exhaled a sigh while crossing his arms and his legs, “damn, ten seconds later and we would have lost the train”

“Not trying to sound like an ass, kid, but that was probably your fault”

“ _What_?!”, Nero realized he had talked too loudly when several people turned to look at him in their seats, but before he could keep talking in a lower though still outraged tone, Dante continued.

“Yep. First, as that employee said, you should have told him who you were waiting for...”

“Well, sorry if it didn’t occur to me to play the Jerk-Superstar move”

“...and second…”, Dante smiled ironically at him, “...having your number would have surely helped”

Nero’s next protest died on his throat when hearing Dante.

“Wait, you don’t have it?”, he asked surprised, causing Dante to shake his head.

“No, darling. You forgot to give it to me”

Nero snorted, trying to be super casual while extracting his mobile from his pocket and suffering a mini-heart attack when the device was about to escape from his fingers. Now that he thought about it, he had just shared numbers with Nico, assuming that the rest of the band would have it already since it appeared on his CV. So technically yes, it was his fault for assuming that D-isastrous-ante would have taken note of it.

“Here you have it, _dear_ ”, he simply said back, showing the screen to Dante so that the man could store it.

“Thank you”, Dante sing-songed while typing on his mobile. Nero was about to return his to his pocket when it suddenly sounded, which made him throw a suspicious glance at Dante, “sorry, _sweetheart_ , had to check you hadn’t given me a wrong number”

Nero huffed, preferring to put a stop to the ‘flirting’ before continuing it and probably regretting it.

“Okay, time for a little nap”, Dante reclined back his seat and placed his hat over his face, “can you please warn me when we are about to arrive?”

Nero simply hummed as an answer. In that position Dante’s eyes and nose were covered by the hat so Nero had to force himself to stop looking at Dante’s lips, before his mind decided to wander to already familiar but not always recommendable territories.

He spent the first half of the three hours the trip lasted listening to music while occasionally checking his mobile, but eventually he must have dozed off as well because when he opened his eyes the train had stopped completely and people were beginning to stand up from their seats to take their belongings.

Dante was still sound asleep next to him, and Nero couldn’t resist the temptation to take a picture because the guitarist was still with his arms crossed and with the hat on place but he had somehow slid towards the train window, ending in a position that Nero doubted it was comfortable for anyone but a contortionist.

“Time to wake up, old man”, Nero palmed Dante’s knee rudely on purpose, causing the guitarist to jump startled which made his hat finally fall from his face.

“Jeez, kid, you should learn to wake people with more delicacy”, Dante protested, stretching before recovering his hat, “your bed partners would be grateful for it”

Nero was about to ironically say that Dante surely was an expert on that matter but at the last moment he came up with a better reply.

“At least I won’t wake them up with my snores”

Dante’s reaction when hearing his casual comment was better than he was expecting, since the guitarist stopped midway while putting his jacket on before looking at him with an offended expression.

“I don’t snore”

Dante was completely right: the man hadn’t snored at all during the trip, but Nero simply shrugged.

“If you say so”, he said with a fake innocent tone that caused Dante to half-close his eyes at him.

Nero began to walk through the car corridor internally counting three...two... _one_...

“Nero, now seriously, I don’t snore, do I?”

Nero had to suppress a laugh when hearing Dante’s now worried tone, thinking that maybe that trip was going to be less stressing than expected.

However, when seeing the beautiful lady that was sustaining a pick up sing with Dante’s name written on it, waiting for them at the station to surely take them to their destination, Nero’s expectations sank a little, and practically disappeared when the woman ogled at Dante without any subtleness and the man didn’t look unconcerned at all by it, but just the exact damn contrary.

“Good afternoon. My name is Stella”, she offered her hand to Dante, batting her eyelashes exaggeratedly, “it’s a pleasure to be at your whole disposal today”

Nero didn’t know how he managed not to roll his eyes while Dante took Stella’s hand and approached its palm to his lips in a ridiculous flirtatious way that god knew why made the lady bite her lower lip clearly pleased.

“So, where can we leave this?”, Nero rudely dragged the suitcase that Dante had been carrying up till that moment and situated it in front of him, looking at the woman without bothering to hide his impatience.

Stella didn’t look amused at all by this, but since Dante didn’t seem particularly bothered by Nero’s obvious interruption she sighed softly and lead them towards the outside parking.

Stella stopped next to a black [Chevrolet Camaro](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JwVUGUb3EpY/maxresdefault.jpg) and after leaving the suitcase in the trunk they entered the car, Nero sitting in the back seats while Dante did it beside Stella. Nero spent the whole trip observing the views of the city while leaning his elbow on the car window, in silence because he wasn’t honestly in the mood to try to intervene in Dante and Stella’s conversation, which mainly consisted of the woman flirting with Dante and this one not doing anything to stop it. He never thought he would miss Vergil among all the members of the band, but he was sure that if the man was there his sarcastic comments about his brother ‘indecency’ would come super in handy.

He was about to exhale a relieved sigh when they finally arrived the outside the plaza where the [stage](http://www.gruppoalis.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Palco21.jpg) had been installed. Fortunately, Stella seemed to have been hired just to drive them to the places they had to visit and she left at that moment (not without offering Dante a last seductive smile first).

Thanks to that, the rest of the afternoon was way more relaxing. Hank, the man that Nero met in the filming studio and that was in charge of the whole installation, was there as well. He greeted Nero quite effusively and Dante, and almost immediately they got to work.

Even if Nero already knew how everything worked, he still spent almost the first hour checking with Hank that everything was ready in the stage and that the flying system worked correctly. Dante was also present in the checking process. He asked occasional questions but he mainly spent the time listening to Nero and Hank’s conversation, which made Nero think that Morrison hadn’t been wrong when describing Vergil as a cat because the bassist’s twin looked the same, observing everything with curiosity

After verifying everything was ready, they finally passed to test the wings with the system Nero had improved. Nero couldn’t prevent the image of Dante suddenly removing his shirt from coming to his mind, and god knew why he was unable to hold a comment back when Dante was about to put them over his long-sleeved t-shirt.

“So at the end you could wear them _with_ clothes”

Nero used a rather casual tone but Dante wasn’t dumb, and immediately caught what Nero meant because he exhaled a chuckle.

“Yes, _these ones_ I can wear them _with_ clothes because you made them looser”, Dante explained with irony while Nero proceeded to adjust the harnesses the guitarist was already wearing under the wings.

“And how do you know that? You haven’t tried them out yet”

“Because you told me you were going to make them that way, smartass”

“Nah, Lady was right when saying that you are a showoff”

God, he was probably being an utter idiot, but teasing Dante and seeing the man exhale a defeated, resigned sigh felt way too good…

...and oh shit, there it was: _that_ smirk that never boded well.

“Nero, if you want me to undress there are better ways to ask for i- _ouch_!”

“Ups, sorry. Too tight?”, Nero asked with fake concern, hoping that Dante didn’t notice the way his ears had gotten a little red after hearing the guitarist’s seductive (but sadly joking) proposal.

“Yeah, sorry. It’s my first time doing this so--”

“Okay, you do it on purpose, right?”, Nero blurted out, unable to contain himself this time and causing Dante to burst out laughing.

“Not always but yes: this time it was”, Dante admitted, causing Nero to roll his eyes.

“You are aware that I will be one controlling the system, right? Maybe you shouldn’t temp your luck so much”

“Nah: I know I’m in good hands, Mr. Handyman”

Nero had to snort to hide his light embarrassment when realizing that despite the joking tone Dante’s words were completely honest. Damn, no doubt the idiot had success if he dropped casual compliments out of the blue.

They spent the next couple of hours testing the system with Hank and a couple more people’s help. It took them some time to find the most suitable way to configure the harnesses and the wings mechanism so that the last could move without being blocked by the first. The good news was that even if Dante (and by extension Vergil) were heavier than Nico, the flying system responded very well and Nero checked he could also control the guitarist with very little effort.

“We’ll have to practice how to put these harnesses quickly, kid”, Dante said while still being suspended in the air, “because I will have to change costumes in the middle of the concert”

“Shit, you’re right”, Nero remained silent for a moment, beginning to talk more to himself, “maybe it could be possible to combine the harnesses with the wings mechanism, or at least with a part of it instead of keeping it glue to the wings”, Nero turned towards Hank, who was thinking too, “what do you think?”

“Hey, it’s awesome you have more ideas but could you please lower me first?”

Nero was about to do so but he stopped with a chuckle.

“You know, if you push your hair back you would be _exactly_ like Vergil: looking at everyone from above”

Dante’s eyes opened wide before grinning.

“I will tell him you said that”

Nero’s smile disappeared at once.

“No, you won’t”

Dante barked a laugh when hearing Nero’s tone, mix threaten and plea.

“Yeah, I won’t, but just because you will tell him about my slip with Saya”

“Exactly”

“But wait! Take a picture”, Dante pushed his hair back, and it was incredible how such a simple change made such a difference, “I won’t tell Vergil but Trish and Lady will love to see this”

After Nero took several pictures of Dante managing to adopt Vergil’s condescending expression really accurately, they lowered the man down. Nero spent another half-an-hour talking to Hank to discuss how the harness could be adapted and when Nero had a pretty defined idea about how to carry out the modifications they decided to take a small break, since that afternoon he would work on the design plans for the next version of the wings so that the people of the stage could also begin to adapt it.

Nero said goodbye for the moment to Hank and the people of the stage and proceeded to look for Dante. The guitarist had received a call from Morrison in the middle of the conversation that made him leave the stage, and when Nero found him, he was still on the phone with an exasperated expression on his face.

“And I repeat you I don’t know if we’ll have time to buy all that!...Hey, who are you calling lazy?! You are the ones who...”, Dante stopped talking when seeing Nero, “...buuut maybe Nero will be more willing to help you”

Nero was opening his mouth to ask what the hell was happening when Dante put his phone in the middle of them and activated the speaker, allowing him to hear several familiar feminine voices talking at same time.

“ _Nero! Please, tell us you aren’t a jerk like Dante and you will make us a little favor~_ ”

“ _Lady, leave Nero out of this! He will surely be busier than Dante”_

_“Oh, come on, Trish, we are just going to ask him for a couple of things”_

_“Lucia, you want him to visit more than ten shops. That’s not ‘a couple of things’!”_

_“Come on, Nico, don’t be shy: ask Nero what you want”_

_“B-But I don’t want anything!”_

_“Well, then I will ask for you~”_

_“LADY!”_

_“Hi Nero!! I’m Patty!! I hope to meet you soon!! The guys are always talking about how nice you are, specially Dan-”_

_“But what’s going on here?!”_

_“Ups, it seems the fun is over”_

_“Wait, dad! We haven’t finished!”_

_“I’m sorry, Nero, ignore these crazy people”_

When Morrison hanged up Nero’s eyes were still open wide when looking at Dante barely suppressing a laugh.

“What the hell was that?”

“That’s what happens when one of us goes on a trip alone”, Dante put the phone back on the pocket of his trousers, “by the way, before the ladies got all crazy Morrison told me he had arranged a radio interview at 5 p.m. You can come too if you want”

Nero exhaled a short laugh, shaking his head while beginning to walk with Dante, moving away from the stage.

“No, thank you. I prefer working in the shadows”

Dante looked at him with amusement and opened his mouth to ask him something, but at that moment Nero tensed, pinpointing someone he had managed to forget while working during the morning approaching them with rapid steps.

“Hi again”, Stella greeted, her eyes only for Dante, “did everything go okay?”

“Yeah, we managed to do everything we came to do”, Dante answered cheerily, “thank you again for bringing us here”

“Oh, as I said it was a pleasure”, Stella cleared her throat softly before crossing her arms, causing her already fitted shirt to become even tighter in the breasts’ area, “by the way, I took the liberty of making a reservation in the best restaurant of the city. All expenses paid of course. And maybe after it…”, the woman offered Dante another smile, “...I could show you around the city a little”

Nero’s jaw tensed involuntarily after Stella finished speaking. He was about to take a deep breath to excuse himself and get the hell out of there when Dante talked again.

“Well, well, that sounds reaaally nice indeed”, Nero, who was beginning to turn to leave, was about to lose balance when Dante suddenly hooked an arm around his neck, keeping him there, “let’s not waste any more time then”

Nero didn’t know who was more surprised after Dante decided to include him in the plan even if it was clear he hadn’t been initially invited: if Stella or him. For the way the woman’s jaw had fallen slack, it seemed she was the winner.

“Uhm…”, Stella laughed with certain embarrassment, “...but I’m afraid I’ve just made the reservation for two people--”

“Oh, but I’m sure that there won’t be much problem if you call them again saying that we’ll be three at the end”, Dante winked at the woman, “so lead the way, love. And also, I’m afraid I will miss the guide around the city because of a last-minute interview, so it would be lovely if you could drop me there after lunch. But now let’s go! I can’t be the only one in being starving, right?”

Nero didn’t know how the hell he managed to push back the smile that threatened to split his face in two while following an obviously disappointed Stella towards the car.

* * *

Initially, the mood in the table of the restaurant was a little tense because a dark aura could almost be seen coming out from Stella, but if there was something that no one could deny was that it was pretty difficult not to fall for Dante’s innate charm (damn, Nero had done it after watching a couple of concerts), so thanks to Dante’s effort to include Stella in the conversation eventually the woman seemed to accept that her date had been ruined, and Nero discovered that the woman wasn’t that bad when she wasn’t trying to get into Dante’s pants.

After the rather copious lunch, they came back to the car and, after taking Dante towards the studio where the radio interview was going to be recorded, Stella remained at Nero’s disposal to take him wherever he needed.

The first stop was the plaza once again. With Hank’s help the new design of the wings was made pretty quickly which meant that Nero still had a couple of hours for himself. He first had the intention of telling Stella to simply drop him in the middle of the city to go for a walk but then he realized that Nico had sent him a message with the lists of things Lady, Patty and Lucia wanted him to buy. Nero was tempted to pretend not having read the message because the list wasn’t precisely small, but eventually decided that it wouldn’t hurt to grant the ladies’ wishes for once.

If someone had told him that same morning that he would be glad for being with Stella he would have snorted loudly, but the woman was a real help: she didn’t only drive him to the ten shops (Trish hadn’t exaggerated) but also went with him to help him find the clothes, accessories, photographic stuff, and plushies (presumably for Patty) of the list in time record.

“Thanks a lot”, Nero said with a sincere grateful tone when Stella was driving him towards the station, since Dante was pretty close from the recording studio and didn’t need to be picked up.

“No problem”, the woman looked at Nero through the rearview mirror with an ironic smile, “it was not the plan I had in mind but it was funnier than expected”

Nero’s mouth opened a little in surprise, not knowing well what to answer to Stella’s sincerity, which caused this one to chuckle. He remained in silence for the rest of the trip and in barely ten minutes they reached the station.

Stella also stepped out of the car to help Nero with the bags while this one grabbed the suitcase, and after they managed to find the best way so that Nero could carry everything without tripping over, he turned towards the woman.

“Well, thank you for everything”

He offered a hand towards Stella, not very sure if the woman was going to accept it, but she did it to shake it with firmness.

“Have a safe trip back”

Nero nodded as a goodbye and turned around to go towards the platforms when Stella talked again.

“I hope you have more luck with him than me”

Nero stopped in his tracks and looked back at the woman with eyes opened wide, but she was already on the driving seat and after dedicating him a knowing smile she simply left, leaving him with a dumbfounded expression.

Shit, was his crush for Dante _that_ obvious? Because the fact that Vergil probably knew about it wasn’t that weird since the man was really observant but damn, he had just met Stella today. And okay, maybe his glares when the woman was flirting with Dante hadn’t been as subtle as he thought but shit, that meant that he had to be way more careful when Dante was around if he didn’t want the guitarist to notice.

But that was what he wanted? Or did he actually want Dante to notice? Fuck, he wasn’t sure about anything right now.

“Damn, I thought I was going to be the first for once”

The nervousness Nero had managed to keep in check along all the day came back at full force when realizing Dante had arrived, approaching him rather silently until being situated next to him.

“ _Holy cow_! I know certain ladies that are going to love you even more after this”, Dante stopped staring at the bags and passed to look at Nero, frowning slightly when doing so, “you okay, kid? You look a little tense”

Nero insulted himself internally. Not a good start if he wanted Dante not to suspect anything.

“Y-Yeah, just tired from all the shopping”, before Dante could say anything else Nero gestured towards the platforms with his head, “come on, the train leaves in ten minutes and I would prefer not having to use the Jerk-Superstar move”

As expected, his comment made Dante’s light concerned frown disappear with a chuckle.

“Yes, better use it for emergencies”

After Dante grabbed most part of the bags so that Nero just carried the suitcase they walked towards their platform. Their train was already there so they decided not to wait more and entered, and even if Nero had used the tired argument as an excuse, when he dropped on his seat all the accumulated tiredness of the day and also the week seemed to hit him at once.

“Seems like someone could make good use of a nap”

Nero snapped his eyes open, finding Dante looking at him with a rather amused expression. He didn’t remember having closed them in the first place so that meant that he had dozed off the moment he sat down.

“Shit, sorry, I--”

“Hey, it’s okay, kid”, Dante interrupted him, crossing his legs and opening the magazine he had bought on his way to the station, “if you are tired sleep. I will scare you awake when we arrive”

Nero snorted with a smile because of Dante’s choice of words and after reclining his seat he closed his eyes, hoping not to snore because otherwise Dante would be teasing him to the end of his days.

* * *

“Kid. Nero, wake up”

Dante suddenly shaking his shoulder caused Nero to sit up straight in a rather violent movement.

“Damn, and I was the one who had to learn some delicacy?”, he mumbled still half-asleep.

He rubbed his eyes with one hand trying to be more awake and frowned when seeing people standing up and picking up their things, murmuring with expressions that went from worried to irritated. In fact, now that he noticed, the train wasn’t moving at all.

“Have we arrived already?”, Nero answered himself with a no when seeing it was still 9.30 p.m., so two hours and half of trip remained since the only train that fitted their schedule was slower than the first he took, “but why have we stopped?”

“Well, it seems that the driver would like to know that as well”

Nero looked at Dante without understanding for a couple of seconds before it clicked.

“Wait, the train is not working?”, he blurted out, causing Dante to nod while finally standing up.

“Yep. It hasn’t moved for ten minutes now so someone went to ask the driver”, Dante reached up to retrieve their respective jackets from the baggage rack, “he says that he will call the company to fix it but that he’s not sure when they will come”

“Shit, what we are going to do then?”, Nero asked, standing up as well to put his coat on before beginning to help Dante retrieve the rest of the multiple bags.

“Well, the good news is that the man managed to drive us pretty close to a motel, so I think that our best option is to spend the night there and figure it out how to come back tomorrow”

“But there aren’t any buses that we can take?”, Nero inquired, beginning to follow Dante through the train corridor, although he didn’t advance much because most part of the passengers were doing the same.

“I have checked it but the first bus arrives in a couple of hours and it takes it six hours and half to reach home”, Dante looked at Nero over his shoulder with an ironic glint in his eyes, “and I don’t want to sound picky like Vergil but those buses are pretty shitty for big people”

Nero had to agree on that. He had travelled a lot on them in order to save money and they weren’t the most comfortable thing ever. And definitely being caged in a seat next to Dante for six hours wasn’t probably the best idea.

“And I guess that renting a car is not viable”

Dante huffed.

“I don’t know you but I don’t feel like driving six hours right now”

Nero agreed too, which also eliminated the option of calling Morrison so that the man rescued them because it would be total 12 hours of journey.

“Okay then, let’s go to the motel”, Nero exhaled a sigh, hoping that all the people leaving the train weren’t having the same idea.

Once they managed to advance through the corridor and recover their suitcase, they began to walk to the [motel area](https://live.staticflickr.com/4286/35651859891_fa0b2f25f9_b.jpg) that, as Nero feared, didn’t look big enough to accommodate all the people that were walking in the same direction.

In fact, when they arrived at the motel’s entrance there were several people there and Nero’s fears of not getting a room were confirmed when hearing people cursing and coming back to the train.

“It seems that we are late”, Nero sighed with resignation, but to his surprise Dante simply smiled with confidence.

“Oh no, we aren’t”

Nero began to follow Dante, frowning.

“But you heard the other passengers. They said the motel was full”

“Well, remember when I said we had to keep _that_ move for an emergency?”, Dante smirked, “it seems the time has come”

Before Nero could ask Dante what he planned to do, the guitarist entered the small lateral office outside the motel, that was now empty with the exception of the receptionist, walking with such confidence that it seemed that he owned the damn place.

“Good evening”, Dante leaned both of his forearms over the reception table, smiling at the young man that was sitting there, “I would like to rent two rooms for the night”

The man looked at Dante with confusion, looked at Nero then who simply shrugged, and then at Dante again.

“I’m sorry, sir, but as I told all the other passengers we are full for the night”

“Yeah, I’ve heard so, but I’m sure we can think about a solution”, Dante’s tone acquired a hint of superiority that would have made Vergil proud, “because I’m pretty sure that this motel’s popularity would _greatly_ improve if people knew that the guitarist of _Devil May Cry_ has slept here”

For the confused face the young man was making, it was evident that he didn’t know who Dante was. However, at that moment another woman (who probably was the man’s mother) appeared from one of the lateral doors to ask what was going on, and when seeing Dante there, the high-pitched enthusiastic cry she let out almost left Nero deaf.

The woman almost hit her son for not recognizing Dante and from then on, the guitarist barely needed to keep speaking so that the woman agreed to arrange accommodation for them (after almost making Dante fall into the floor for the effusive hug she gave him).

While the woman began to check the computer with her son, Dante leaned over to whisper the next sentence in Nero’s ear, causing this one to be about to suffer a shiver.

“See? Sometimes it’s not that bad to play the famous role”

Nero was about to reply that he would believe that when being inside his room when the woman and her son began to talk in a language Nero didn’t understand, but that he deduced it was Spanish. After almost a minute, the woman looked at them with an unsure expression.

“Getting two rooms is a little difficult, but would it be okay to share one?”

Nero felt his heart stop.

 _What_?

“Sure, no problem”

Nero stared at Dante with his eyes open at its maximum.

 _WHAT_?!

“Perfect then!”, the woman said happily, “please, wait here for a moment. I will go to talk to the current guests to leave everything arranged”

The woman and her son left the office together and Nero managed to close his opened mouth just before Dante turned to look at him with a playful smile in his lips.

“Well, kid, I really hope you were joking when saying I snore”

Nero suppressed the urge of gulping.

Honestly, the only thing he hoped was that the room had _two_ beds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Guess what? Yes, the chapter was getting way too long again and decided to stop here xDD I know I left it a little cliffhanger-like but as always I will try to update ASAP <3 ;)


	8. Restless night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning** : In case someone hasn't realized the rate of the fic is now M for...things :D

While climbing up the outside stairs leading to the second floor of the motel, Nero’s heart began to beat faster with every step, but when they finally stopped in front of their room he had already surrendered to the unavoidable fate of spending a rather tense night sharing a bed with Dante.

For that reason, when the guitarist opened the room and the sight of [two single beds](https://muc.leonardocloud.com/cdms/vmm3files/34365fec-1ae1-45bf-926d-fd8c14215842_jp.jpg) welcomed them, Nero was honestly surprised (and not at all disappointed).

“Not bad”, Dante commented, leaving all the bags over the left bed while Nero approached the right one while carrying the suitcase, “although thank goodness that Vergil isn’t here or he would be complaining about the place for sure”

Nero chuckled, not having any problem in imagining the bassist's disgusted expression. He sat on his bed and tested its hardness by bouncing sightly on it. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed ever and probably his feet would hang out of it because it was a little small, but it would surely do for the night.

“What time is it?”

Nero, who had begun to loosen his second boot, stopped when hearing Dante’s question and reached for his mobile.

“10.07”

His answer made Dante hum to himself.

“Don’t think they serve dinners here at this hour, so I’ll see what I can find”

“Do you want me to come along?”

“Nah, I can handle it”, Dante smiled, signaling with his eyes at the bags covering his bed, “I may be lazy but I owe you big time for playing the errand boy for the ladies”

Nero certainly wasn’t going to contradict him, because even with  Stella’s help the shopping had been the most tiring part of the whole day.

“I take the keys”, Dante announced while opening the door, winking at Nero, “see you soon”

When the door closed behind the guitarist Nero sighed and after kicking his boots out of his feet he lied down on his bed, one hand behind his head and the other across his stomach.

The last week and half had been hella busy for all of them, so he had barely had time to stop for a moment and think calmly about what he wanted to do in regards his bigger and bigger crush for Dante. The only thing Nero knew for certain was that, as days passed and as his interactions with the guitarist increased and they grew closer, it was getting more and more difficult to keep his feelings in check, to the point that it wouldn’t be surprising that one of those days he decided to react to Dante’s oblivious flirting comments by senseless kissing the guitarist in a way Nero would made sure he’d never forget.

 _That_ was the other thing Nero wasn’t sure how to interpret, because as much aware as he was that innuendos were part of Dante’s natural way of communication, a part of him couldn’t help to wonder if Dante was _actually_ trying to flirt with him. But on the other hand he wasn’t dumb, and he knew that he would be an idiot by letting his hopes up just because, lately, Dante’s joking flirting comments had become more abundant, since the man was always making that kind of jokes.

Besides, the fact that he had begun to answer back could have had some influence in that because, if it hadn’t been evident enough by seeing the twins interact together, Dante’s competitiveness didn’t fail short compared to his own and the guitarist always tried to have the last word when Nero decided not to remain quiet.

Nero had jokingly thought to himself that it always existed the option of testing a well played ‘ _I bet you don’t dare to kiss me_ ’. He was pretty sure that the guitarist would be competitive (and kind of dumb) enough to carry out the challenge but, as Nero told Nico that day in the filming studio, he didn’t want that.

Okay, that wasn’t entirely true: he wanted that and more, and he was pretty sure that that night his stupid brain would torture him with a dream starring Dante, who this time would crawl in his bed in the middle of the night to heatedly make out with him before fucking him thoroughly and good against the mattress, causing him to wake up with an awkward boner because his damn imagination decided to be particularly vivid with his erotic dreams.

But, as much as he sometimes fantasized about him and Dante doing E rated things because he was a healthy 24 (almost 25) years-old young man with needs, the last thing he wanted was to become a one-night stand for the guitarist, or fuck-buddies, or whatever term that implied that their relationship wasn’t something else.

Because yeah, of course that kissing and doing other stuff with Dante would be awesome, but he wanted more. He didn’t want to be a person Dante was with in order to have sex once or twice. He wanted to be _the_ person Dante was with, period. Was he naive for thinking that Dante would agree to that kind of relationship when now he could be with whom he wanted, whenever he wanted and with no strings attached? Absolutely, especially considering Dante’s lack of interest in keeping a serious relationship. But what Nero knew was that he wouldn’t settle for anything less than that.

He knew himself, and he didn’t believe in that shit of sex without feelings. The last ones were always there, even in the non-serious relationships he had decided to go for, and considering that his crush for Dante had been there for a while even if he had been dumb enough not to notice until personally meeting the guitarist, like hell if he wanted to initiate something casual that would probably end with a broken heart which, spoiler alert, would surely be his.

Nero sighed again and checked his mobile: 10.17 p.m. Ten minutes had passed and he wasn’t closer to decide what the hell he wanted to do. Although, thinking reasonably about it, it wasn’t wise to act when just 13 days left for the concert because they needed to keep focused on it, so for the time being the best thing he could do was to refrain those occasional kissing impulses and continue as usual.

After making his mind, Nero decided to stand up and take a short shower before beginning to doze off. He took the couple of towels that had been placed on his bed and entered the [bathroom](https://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/4OafNmQS_MD8v5XzGbGs-A/o.jpg). It was small and rather narrow but surprisingly the shower was pretty decent in size. In fact, two people could enter there and they would just be a little crowded.

Knowing too well where his thoughts were trying to go, Nero pushed them aside and after undressing he entered the shower. He had an initial scare when the water wasn’t giving any indications to heat up but after a minute it was finally warm enough for Nero to fully step under the water. Since spending the night in the motel had been something improvised he hadn’t brought anything like shampoo or gel but fortunately a couple of small bottles had been left on the bathroom sink. Nero tried not to use all the content just in case Dante decided to take a shower too later.

The same as it happened when he was home, Nero delayed at maximum the moment of stepping out of the shower, feeling to good under it. At least V wasn’t there to reproach him spending more time than necessary and consequently raising the water bill. Speaking of whom, Nero realized he had to call him to say he wouldn’t be spending the night at home.

V would ironically say that he wasn’t a jealous boyfriend that needed to know where he was at any moment but Nero knew his childhood friend would appreciate the warning. He still remembered that during the first two years after they moved to the city they both had to work really hard to make ends meet, and no matter how late Nero arrived home some days V used to wait for him awake, reading or pretending to do so, and in more than one occasion Nero had caught glimpses of relief in the poet’s face when seeing him cross the door. After all they, together with Kyrie, had grown up together, had always taken care of each other and had worried about each other, and those were habits hard to beat.

Nero had just came back to the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and another still hanging around his neck when the sound of a key opening a door was heard and in the next instant Dante stepped inside the room, carrying a couple of bags.

“Sorry for the delay”, Dante closed the door behind him, “there was a bunch of people buying in the gas station and it took me more than I thought”

Dante finally looked towards Nero standing in the middle of the room, and this one was surprised when noticing the way the guitarist’s eyes briefly lingered through his exposed and still a little wet body before stopping again in his face.

Nero felt his heart skip a beat.

Was he imagining things or Dante had just _checked him out_?

Although even if that was the case it was stupid to think too deeply about it. It wasn’t the first time that people didn’t expect that Nero’s manual labour had provided him with more than a decent physique, so maybe Dante had been just surprised to find it out. And that was the reason that the guitarist had also subtly gulped before talking again with his usual cheery tone.

“My apologies, kid”, Dante raised one of the bags and swung it a little, “this wasn’t the fancy dinner you were expecting but there weren’t many options”

Nero took the bag Dante was offering him with a smile.

“Don’t lie. I bet you are happy it turned out to be this cheap”

“Hey, have some confidence in me”, Dante protested with a smile, removing his coat, scarf and hat before sitting on his bed, “even I think that 2.95$ sandwiches are a pretty poor treat”

Nero chuckled, extracting the two sets of sandwiches and the coke that Dante had bought, still standing. He left the drink on the small table situated in the middle of their beds and grabbed his mobile while Dante extracted his own dinner.

“Have to warn that I won’t be home tonight”, Nero explained when Dante observed him with curiosity after he marked V’s number and approached it to his ear.

“Oh, you right. Should probably warn the others too”

Nero didn’t get to see Dante reaching for his own mobile because at that moment V picked up and he automatically gave his back to Dante to continue talking, as if doing that would be enough to give him enough privacy.

“Hey, V. Listen, the train suffered a breakdown and Dante and I have to spend the night in a motel”

There was a little pause at the other side of the line before V spoke.

“ _Just Dante and you?_ ”

It was at that moment that Nero began to regret having given so many details via phone when hearing the emphasis V put in the first word.

“Yes, Vergil hasn’t been able to come at the end”

There was another pause.

“ _...Oh_ ”

V had a real talent in saying a lot with very few words, so Nero made sure to keep talking not to give the poet any opportunity to come up with a teasing comment.

“So that’s all”, Nero said with a tone that wanted to indicate that the conversation was over, “just wanted to tell you so that you don’t wait awake for m-”

“ _You are sharing the room with him, right?_ ”

Nero froze. He didn’t know how the fuck V had deduced that but he could perfectly picture the way the poet was grinning at the moment. Damn, definitely he should have sent a message even if it was less than probable that V had read it in time.

“ _Yes, you definitely are. Otherwise you would be already rambling about your day with Dante as usual_ ”

“What?! But it’s you the one who is always asking for more...”, ‘details’, Nero was going to say, momentarily forgetting that Dante was there, so he cleared his throat and lowered his tone, “look, I really gotta go now. See you tomorrow, okay?”

“ _Wait, one last thing_ ”, V said just when Nero was going to hang up, “ _Kyrie called me before. She says this Saturday she is free and that she would like to go out for some drinks together ‘like old times’_ ”

Nero exhaled a laugh.

“You know that means that we won’t get any rest”

“ _Yes, I’m very much afraid of that_ ”

Nero chuckled again when hearing V’s resigned tone.

“This Saturday I will probably have to work in the morning, but I’ll be free at night”

“ _Send her a message then. She will be delighted because she was really looking forward to hear your last (poor) advances with your current roommate_ ”

“Oh, I can’t wait for it”, Nero said with an exaggerated enthusiastic tone before adopting his usual one, “well, gotta go. See you tomorrow”

“ _Hope you get some sleep tonight_ ”

Nero snorted softly when hearing V’s amused comment.

“Yeah, me too”

Nero hanged up and turned around again. Dante was sustaining his phone but wasn’t typing anything. He was just looking at him with an amused smile that, this time though, didn’t completely reach his clear eyes.

“Seems you will have a pretty intense Saturday”

“Huh?”, Nero, who was beginning to text Kyrie to confirm her about the weekend, looked at Dante a little distracted before continuing typing, “oh, yeah”, Nero looked at Dante suddenly hesitating, “I mean, I’ve assumed that we have this Sunday free, but if you need me to work because we are short of time--”

“No no no”, Dante said immediately, “jeez, we aren’t exploiters, kid. And you’ve been working more than you should for almost two weeks. You deserve having some fun”

Nero chuckled, nodding sightly.

“Yeah, it’s been a while since we went all out. Just hope to be able to keep the rhythm”

Since Kyrie answered him at that moment with a lot of enthusiastic emojis, Nero failed to see the tension that surrounded Dante for an instant before recovering his usual relaxed stance.

“Ookay, done”, Nero said finally looking at Dante, “sorry for the wait. Gotta get changed now”

Nero rapidly ran towards the bathroom to recover his clothes, missing that way the soft sigh that Dante let out with a pretty resigned expression on his face.

* * *

During the dinner they had barely time to speak: first, because they were pretty hungry and during the first minutes they focused more on eating than talking; and second, because Morrison and the others called them when they were just for the second sandwich to check on them.

Nero wasn’t surprised when Trish entered mother mode with him because he was pretty used by it already, and when Dante commented that Nero had been a gentleman by buying all the things they had asked for Lady, Lucia and Patty began to talk really loudly and fast, thanking Nero effusively and complimenting how good he was compared to Dante, which obviously caused this one to protest as fervently.

While Dante tried to uselessly defend himself Nero realized Nico had sent him a private message. He discreetly checked it and suppressed a smile when reading the ‘ _Cheers sharing the room with D, dude. Hope it isn’t too awkward_ ’. He answered with a short ‘ _Thx_ ’ and joined the common conversation/discussion just in time to say goodbye to the others.

“Jeez”, Dante left the mobile on the nightstand before sitting back against the headboard, flexing one of his legs on the bed to lean his elbow on it, “I’m beginning to regret that you are such a charmer. You are ruining my reputation like that, you know?”

Nero snorted when hearing Dante’s slight sulking tone. He threw the plastic wrapping of the already eaten sandwiches towards the waste bin situated in the other side of the room. He smiled when he managed to make a perfect shot and reclined his back against the wall the same as Dante but with both of his legs extended and crossed on the bed

“Well, but your reputation of being lazy will remain intact”

Dante offered Nero a half-hearted glare that just caused this one to smile ‘innocently’, causing Dante to huff in return.

“You knew, you were cuter when you were all nervous. Tripping with cables and singing so _uniquely..._ ”

To Nero’s frustration, Dante didn’t have any difficulties in catching the smaller pillow he threw at him after hearing his comment.

“Sorry, kid”, Dante said with a proud smile while Nero clicked his tongue, “having Vergil as a brother has given me super reflexes to avoid things”

“I bet you deserved to be hit more than once”

Dante chuckled, giving the pillow back to Nero.

“Not gonna deny that”

Nero rolled his eyes. He was tempted to throw the pillow back at Dante to see if this time he managed to catch him by surprise when he remembered something.

“By the way, how did the radio interview go?”

“Oh, it went good”, Dante rearranged the pillows behind him to lean more comfortably against them before answering, “as expected they tried to get more information about who was the new vocalist and about the music video we had recorded BUT, against Vergil, Trish, Lady and Morrison’s opinion, I know when to keep my mouth shut and didn’t tell them anything”

Nero had to suppress a laugh when hearing Dante’s unnecessarily proud comment. He was about to tease the guitarist about more than half of the group doubting his discretion when Dante spoke.

“And what about you?”, Nero was surprised when Dante’s tone turned a little apologetic, “because I bet that a tour around the city would have been funnier than going shopping for the evil ladies”

Nero chuckled when hearing the appellative.

“Nah, it was a little tiring but not too boring. Although I just managed to get all the things because Stella helped me”

“Oh?”, Dante said surprised, “did she?”

Nero bit initially his tongue to refrain himself from saying what he was thinking, but eventually decided to go with it.

“Yep. Even if it’s obvious it wasn’t the plan she had in mind”

It took Dante a moment to understand what Nero meant with that, but when this one looked pointedly at him, the guitarist exhaled a laugh.

“Yeah”, Dante scratched his jaw sightly, “she wasn’t being too subtle about her intentions”

Nero somehow managed to hold back the loud snort that had been about to escape him and simply shook his head.

“Nope, she wasn’t. So thanks for including me in the lunch”, Nero adopted a teasing tone, “it hasn’t reached the level of this dinner but it was acceptable”

Dante chuckled, but then he crossed his arms while frowning lightly.

“You sound surprised though. About me including you I mean”

Nero looked at Dante with an ‘ _Oh, really?_ ’ expression that caused the guitarist to look at him slightly offended.

“Hey, come on, do you really think I would have left you alone just to get laid?”, Nero pushed rapidly away the images that that last comment had made appear in his head, “and okay, I admit that in previous trips I may have disappeared more than once to--”

“I _really_ don’t need more details”, Nero interrupted the guitarist, managing to sound ironic but firm too so that Dante raised his palms towards him in a gesture that indicated he wasn’t going to say more.

“Also, it’s true that _maybe_ if I had been alone the story had been different”, _oh, I have no doubt about that_ , Nero thought a little bitterly, “but I wasn’t going to do _that_ this time”

Nero looked at Dante skeptic, speaking next with a light sarcastic tone.

“Why? Because I'm the _kid_ you had to take care of?”

Nero was expecting a teasing reply, so he was surprised when Dante shook his head softly before answering with a smile.

“Nope. I just thought it would be funnier to hang out with you”

Nero’s heart skipped a beat.

He gulped all the softly he could, thinking that this moment couldn’t be more suitable to say a joking: ‘ _You must really like me to let pass such an opportunity_ ’ or something along those lines. Maybe that was the only little push he needed to put the cards on the table and maybe…

...and stop right there, Romeo: what the hell had happened with ‘waiting after the concert’ thing?! Come on idiot, Nero thought, this is the time to think with your upper head, not with the lower one.

“So you are indirectly saying that the others are boring as hell to hang out? I think your reputation is going to be even worse when I tell them--"

This time it was Dante the one who threw one of his pillows at him, and also his turn to click his tongue when Nero deflected it with a well delivered kick that made it fall in Dante’s bed again.The guitarist then exhaled a patient sigh but he was just pretending to be annoyed because when he lied down on the bed facing up his usual half-joking smile was on his face again.

“Well, I don’t know you but I think I’m going to call it a day”

After yawning Dante began to unbuckle his pants and Nero feared/expected for a moment that the guitarist was going to remove them, but he simply loosened them before closing his eyes.

Nero was surprised when Dante was K.O. the moment his head touched the pillow.

Carefully trying not to make too much noise he reached towards the extremely thin curtain to cover the window and after turning off the lights he got under the covers, lying on his left side giving his back to Dante.

Unlike the guitarist, whose even breathing indicated he was sound asleep, it took Nero more than expected to fall asleep. The sheets were warmer than they look and Nero found himself sweating after just ten minutes, moment in which he finally gave up and removed his t-shirt with a curse. And then his mind decided it was really clever to begin to think about _all_ the interactions he had had with Dante that day to analyze if the man could be remotely interested in him when the only thing Nero wanted to do at the moment was to fucking sleep, since they had to get up super early the next morning to try to take the train that left from the closest village. Definitely, the next time V told him he didn’t think enough, he would seriously hit him.

Eventually though, his eyes finally decided to begin to close on its on, and he was about to finally fall asleep when...

 

“ _Ahh_ …”

 

Nero’s eyes snapped open, all his efforts to sleep going to waste because he was completely awake again.

For a moment he thought he was still sleeping but then another noise sounded, louder than the previous one.

“Kid...are you alright?”

All the doubts Nero could still have about him imagining things vanished when hearing Dante’s unsure question.

“It wasn’t me”, he practically snapped, offended that Dante could think that he could let out such a ridiculously high-pitched sound.

He turned around in the bed to be facing Dante, distinguishing the silhouette of the man leaning back on his forearms.

They remained silent for some seconds and when a new whine came from the next room, he ventured to talk again.

“Do you think we should call for help or--”

Nero’s light worried question was interrupted by a new set of noises that, this time, it was impossible to mistake from pain anymore.

 

“ _Ah..._! God... _yes_!”

“Damn...can’t get enough of you, babe”

 

Nero’s eyes snapped opened, his ears getting incredibly red when realizing what the hell was happening at the other side of the room.

 

“Oh fuck, _don’t stop_... _!_ ”

“Hah...wasn’t planning to... harder?”

 

“Nope. I don’t think they need our help”, Dante said with a matter-of-fact tone while Nero dropped on the bed exhaling a frustrated groan, covering his face with his hands.

“Fuck”

“Exactly kid”

Nero glared at the guitarist when hearing his ironic comment even if he doubted Dante could see his expression in the dark. However at that moment their neighbors seemed to get more into it and the creaking sound of a bed being punished joined their annoying noises of pleasure, making Nero begin to glare at the wall.

 

“Yes _...shit,_ almost there, _keep going!_ ”

 

“No, please, don't”, Nero snapped against the wall, sitting up and beginning to hit it with force in an attempt to let the others know that some people were trying to sleep.

“I don’t think they hear you”

“And can’t we just call the owner of the motel or something?”

“To say what? That there are two people having loud sex? Most part of these motels’ gains come from that, so I don’t think they listen to us”

“Then can’t you play the superstar role again so that they shut the fuck up?”, Nero almost begged when feeling the wall behind him tremble, probably because the bed at the other side was banging against it.

“Yeah, I could, but…”, Nero felt Dante’s smirk in his next sentence, “...I have a better idea”

 

“Like _this_?”

“Fuck, _yes_!”

 

“ _Ngh…_!”

 

Nero froze when the last groan didn’t come from the other side of the wall, but from the neighbour bed.

Thanking that the light slipping through the window was faint enough to hide his surely red face, he stared with a dumbfounded expression at Dante, who continued talking in a lower tone.

“Come on, Nero. Don’t leave me alone on this”

“Alone on _what_ exactly?”, Nero snapped, already fearing the answer.

“Look, if we are louder than them I’m sure they will be so uncomfortable that the fun will be over soon”

Nero exhaled an incredulous nervous laugh, not feeling too comfortable with the idea of pretending to be having sex with the person he _actually_ wanted to have sex with, among other things.

“And how the hell do you know it’s going to work?”

Dante looked at Nero with patience.

“Do you hear them now?”

Nero blinked, realizing that against his will Dante had a point there. In, fact maybe they were lucky enough and Dante’s (certainly sexy) groan had been enough to encourage the noisy guests to carry on with their sexual activities more silentl-

 

“... _aah_! Oh yes, hon, _yes_!”

 

...or maybe not.

While Nero glared once again at the wall Dante simply dropped on the bed while placing his hands behind his head, accepting with way too much stoicism their current situation.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for them to finish in that cas--”

“FUCK, _YES_!”

It was Dante’s turn to stare at Nero with his mouth half-opened when he literally shouted that, at the same time that he moved on his rather unstable bed with enough emphasis to make it bang against the wall.

The other pair immediately grew silent again, but not sure if that would be enough to convince them to keep quiet for the rest of the night Nero looked at Dante, whose eyes were still fixed on him in disbelief.

“Come on, old man, don’t leave _me_ alone now”, Nero teased, his previous nervousness practically vanished for the completely ridiculous situation they were going through.

For that reason, when Dante sat up on the bed again and smirked before groaning exaggeratedly loudly again, Nero could take it almost without reacting at all. _Almost_.

Nero would always remember the next minutes as the most awkward but probably also funniest of his life, specially when Dante surprised him by clapping his hands with force once while groaning a ‘ _Oh, yeah, punish me, babe. I’ve been a really bad boy_ ’ that caused Nero’s next groan to turn into uncontrollable, embarrassed laugh.

He was lost since then, being just unable to muffle his laughs while still moving his bed from time to time so that it kept hitting the wall as Dante kept doing wonderfully his role of ‘bad boy deserving punishment’.

However, it wasn’t long until Nero’s laughs infected Dante too, causing the guitarist to drop on the bed again while shaking.

“Oh, damn”, Nero managed to pant, removing the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, “shit, I’m crying”

“That good, hah?”

Dante’s seductive comment just served to make Nero suffer a new laughing attack, from which he didn’t recover until almost half-a-minute later.

“Fuck, my sides hurts”, Nero half-protested, exhaling a deep breath before turning to look at Dante, who was looking at him recovering his air too, “I think we won”

The guitarist smirked proudly and extended his fist towards him.

“Hell, yeah”

Nero chuckled still a little breathlessly and bumped his fist against Dante’s.

“You know what’s going to be funny?”

Nero shook his head.

“What?”

“If they recognize me tomorrow morning”

It took Nero a moment to piece things together and when he did his mouth half opened.

“Oh...shit”

“Yeah, I’m already reading the headlines: ‘ _The guitarist of Devil May Cry spends a crazy night of sex with a handsome young man_ ’”

Nero was busy exhaling an embarrassed laugh to notice the compliment.

“You seem awfully calm about it”, he joked, the covers over him feeling even warmer than before.

“Well, it’s not the first time that I get paired with someone by mistake”

Nero opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and opened it again eventually, knowing that maybe he was going to regret having done so later.

“But it will be the first time you’ve been associated with a guy, so your success with ladies may be affected. You sure you want to risk it?”

Nero was kind of expecting the silence that fell next.

What took him by surprise was the serious tone that Dante used when answering.

“Maybe”

Nero’s heart began to beat faster. What the hell did Dante mean with that? But before he could even think about how to ask, the guitarist talked again, recovering his usual carefree tone even if this time it sounded kinda forced.

“Weell, maybe we should try to fall asleep before our passionate neighbours decide to try to beat us in being noisy”

Nero suppressed the urge of asking Dante and got comfortable on the bed again, settling his hand under the pillow while leaning on it this time facing Dante.

“Yeah, let’s not tempt our luck”, he closed his eyes, “goodnight _again_ ”

He exhaled a deep breath to force himself to relax and fall asleep soon before beginning to overthink things again, but when Dante answered with a soft ‘ _Goodnight, Nero’_  instead of calling him ‘kid’ as usual, this one realized that he wasn’t going to get as much rest as he wanted.

* * *

“Wait wait wait, let’s see if I’m understanding it right. So Dante, the Casanova guitarist _Dante_ , literally said that he didn’t mind to risk renouncing to girls for you?!”

“First, he didn’t say that exactly. And second damn, Kyrie, don’t shout!”

“I’m afraid that she has to in order to be listened in this strident place”

Kyrie pouted when hearing V’s resigned comment before looking back at Nero in search of support, but he had to be with V this time: the bar where Kyrie had chosen to meet on Saturday night resulted to be a [disco](http://www.mantrixyumbo.com/galeria/la-disco/la-disco-1.jpg), and it was way too lively even for Nero’s standards because the place was so full it was difficult to move without bumping against someone. At least, they had been clever enough to enter it at a reasonable hour in which breathing was a still an easy task and they had managed to sit around a small round table.

“Look, if you hate it that much we can go somewhere else”

“And having you protesting the rest of the night? No, thank you”

Kyrie exhaled an exaggerated sigh while V took a sip of his martini. Nero did the same with his beer, glad that V and Kyrie’s interchange allowed him some minutes of peace...

“But I don’t understand, why didn’t you tell him anything?”

...and there she went again. He had been naive by assuming that those two discussing would be enough to stop the woman from keeping shooting questions.

“Kyrie, please, we’ve talked about this already”

“No, we haven’t”, Kyrie crossed her arms tightly in front of her chest, “you just talk with V about this kind of things”

“It’s nothing to be envious of, believe me”

“Look, which part of: ‘ _I don’t want to do anything until the concert_ ’ is not clear?”, Nero exclaimed with an exasperated laugh.

“But I really think he likes you!”, Kyrie half-closed his eyes at him when Nero snorted, “okay, then if he doesn’t why did he tell you that?”

“Tell what? That ‘maybe’ that could mean anything?”

“And why did he stare at you when you were half-naked if he is _that_ straight?”

“Maybe he was just surprised to see me like that, how should I know?”

Kyrie exhaled an exasperated whine before hitting at Nero in his arm with unexpected force.

“Ouch! What was that for?!”

“Because you are a gay disaster!”

“What?!”

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Kyrie this time though”

Nero stared at V in disbelief, but before he could protest the poet raised his hand towards him in a conciliatory gesture, indicating him to let him finish.

“I don’t think he likes you yet, _but_ I do believe he may begin to feel attracted to you”

Nero opened his eyes wide.

“Really?”

“Hey, why do you believe V and not me?! I hate you, Nero!”

“Well, it’s true that the flirting isn’t something too indicative”, V continued while Kyrie mumbled something unintelligible that had the words ‘ _idiots_ ’ on it, “and more than the staring or that comment that, you are right, was a little ambiguous, you should focus on the fact that he chose you over a date. _That_ is indicative”

Nero remained silent, lost in his thoughts.

Apart from those ‘suspicious’ interactions that took place on Thursday and during Friday night after the ‘incident’ with the pair, nothing too relevant had happened during the next morning and during the trip back, mainly because they both woke up later than they should and had barely time to buy something to eat as breakfast before taking a bus that would carry them to the nearest village in order to take a train home.

Then, when they finally sat on the train Dante received a call from Hank that was addressed to Nero, saying that he had found some things to improve in the design Nero had done the previous morning, which resulted in him spending most part of the trip working on the designs while Dante read and listened to his comments even if he was talking more to himself than to the guitarist. He had been working on it for the rest of the Friday after they finally arrived to the _Devil May Cry_ office, and part of the Saturday, and since Dante had been pretty busy on his own too they had barely talked, and when they did it had been as usual so Nero couldn’t help to wonder if it was just him wanting to see things that weren’t actually there.

“I don’t know”, Nero concluded, inclining forward on the chair and leaning his elbows over his knees while playing with his now empty beer, “but anyway it’s stupid to think much about it until the concert is over”

V and Kyrie interchanged a look before the first softly shrugged his shoulders while the second shook her head to herself. Eventually it was the poet who ended speaking.

“Do as you wish. But bear in mind that: _If you trap the moment before it is ripe/The tears of repentance you’ll certainly wipe/But if once you let the ripe moment go/You can never wipe off the tears of woe_ ”

Nero looked at V impassibly, causing this one to look at him with _that_ look that silently called him dumb.

“It means that you shouldn’t waste given opportunities even if it means making a mistake"

“Thank you. Damn, you could have said that directly”

“Perhaps, but you could also tell Dante how you feel and I don’t see you too willing to be that _direct_ ”

While Kyrie burst out of laughing Nero glared at V. The poet was smiling arrogantly at him satisfied for having won that round, and knowing that V’s reply had been too accurate Nero simply sighed in defeat. He was already used to lose verbal battles with his friend (he was a poet for a reason) but that didn’t mean that he would stop trying to win one day.

“So...", Kyrie suddenly said standing up, “now that we have convinced you to confess asap…”

“Hey, I have never said--”

“Party time!”, Kyrie grabbed V and Nero by their wrists, managing to make them stand up too with little effort despite her apparent delicacy.

Nero honestly didn’t know how Kyrie managed to guide them through the crowd and much less how she managed to find a spot next to one of the columns to dance comfortably enough. As it usually happened when they went out, it was Nero the one who danced with Kyrie while V limited himself to observe them with an amused smile, slightly moving his body with the rhythm of the music and occasionally indulging Kyrie in dancing a little more in the rare cases a song he liked sounded.

“God, I’m thirsty”, Kyrie exclaimed, fanning herself with her hands after several songs had played, “I’m going to get a drink. Don’t you dare to move from here”

Before Nero could offer to accompany her the woman disappeared inside the crowd. Nero tensed and made an attempt to follow her when seeing a guy suddenly approaching her with obvious intentions but Kyrie ‘accidentally’ hit him in the stomach with her elbow, causing him to bend in two while she continued her way as if nothing had happened.

“I don’t think she needs your protection”

Nero smiled when hearing V’s ironic comment, remembering that when they were little she was the one who usually won the fights that they (particularly Nero) got into.

“Yeah, it’s more probably that it was the other way aroun--oh _shit_ ”

“What?”

V asked when Nero’s face twisted in disgust, before situating just in front of the poet to give his back to certain someone he had recognized and that he certainly wanted to avoid.

“Remember the daughter of that client that tried to flirt with me while I was working?”

“The one who entered the bathroom that you were fixing just in her bra and panties and asked you how you were doing in a pathetic attempt to seduce you? Yes, I do”

“That one exactly. I think she is here. And I don’t know if she has seen me”

V looked over Nero’s shoulder discreetly.

“Is it the brunette with the black dress two sizes too small?”

“Yeah, that one”

“I think she has because she is getting closer”

“ _Fuck_ ”

“Must I suppose that telling her you are not interested won’t work?”

“I told her I was gay and she kept trying so nope, I don’t think so”

V nodded to himself before looking back at Nero.

“Then I guess we’ll have to use _that_ technique again”

Before Nero could ask what V meant, the poet suddenly grabbed him by the front of his t-shirt and dragged him forward at the same time that he leaned backwards against the nearest column, forcing Nero to place his right forearm on the column next to the poet’s face not to bump against him, ‘pinning’ him there as his nose slightly brushed with V’s longer one.

The extremely close position made impossible for Nero not to divert his eyes momentarily from V’s green eyes to his lips, causing this one to show the hint of a knowing little smirk that Nero couldn’t help to return, knowing that they both were recalling a particular incident that happened a couple of years ago.

At that time they had been in a bar when one of Nero’s former boyfriends had tried to approach him. Nero and the guy hadn't broken up in good terms so V suggested to pretend to be a couple to avoid a possible confrontation, since in that position and from a far away angle it would seem as if they were making out.

It certainly worked, specially when Nero and V kissed with the honest, simple intention of giving it more credibility.

But then the guy left, they kind of kept kissing because it felt better than they had expected and well, what happened that night wasn't bad at all (it was actually pretty good, Nero wasn’t going to lie) _but_ it was definitely a little weird in retrospective, so it was mutually decided not to talk about it again.

“Is it working?”, Nero asked hopingly while V tilted a little his head to the side to pretend they were kissing at the same time that he got a better view of Nero’s stalker.

“Yes, for the way she has glared at you with disappointment before turning around it's safe to assume it has worked”

"Great. Thanks man"

"You are welcome"

"Damn, I forgot my purse. Nero, can you pass me my ba-- _aaah_?! Hey, if you are going to kiss warn me to take pictures!"

"What the fuck, Kyrie, put down your mobile! We aren't going to kiss!"

"Yes, that was a one time mistake I don't plan to repeat"

Of course, the only thing Nero could do while Kyrie suffered a new laughing attack was to answer his irritating friend with an exaggerated roll of eyes.

* * *

**_Same place, some meters away from them..._ **

“Hey hey Lucia!”

“Jeez, Lady, don’t shake my arm like that! You’re gonna make me spill the drink”

“Ups, sorry! But isn’t that one Nero?”

“Oh, I think you are right!”

“NEROOOOOOOOOOOO! Damn, he doesn’t hear me. Come on, let’s go to say hell-OH my god, look at that!”

“Wait, are they...kissing?”

“Damn, I can’t see it well from here. Can you?”

“Mmm, no. I just see that he has definitely pinned a pretty hot gothic against the column”

“HAH! I knew he was lying when saying that that V was _just_ a friend”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“Writing it in the common group! I want to tell the others I've been right all this time, hehehe”

“Mmm, this is going to be interesting”

“What did you say, Lu?”

“Nothing. Just talking to myself”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem V recites is " _Poems of Sentiment: II. Life Opportunity_ " by William Blake, as could not be otherwise :)  
> Aaand since up till now it's been Nero the one who has been suffering because of oblivious!Dante, it was time already for this one to suffer just a little hehehehehe.  
> Also I suppose no one was really expecting that the guys got some fun already but don't worry: we'll get there...eventually ;)


	9. The poet's visit

The next Monday Nero arrived at 9.30 a.m. to the _Devil May Cry_ office as usual, hoping to spend a relatively calm morning making the changes for the new version of the flying system and wings.

However, when he climbed down the stairs towards the main room and the first thing he saw was a rather big and extremely old van stopped in the middle of it, he had the feeling that his morning schedule was going to be slightly different from the one he had expected, which was just confirmed when Nico and Trish, who were talking animatedly in front of the vehicle, turned to look at him, the first with her eyes shining brightly and the second with a little hesitant expression.

“Hey Nero!”, Nico half-ran towards him and situated behind to settle both of her hands over his shoulders, looking at the van and him alternatively, “so, what do you think? It’s perfect right? Right?!”

Nero’s completely lost expression caused Trish to chuckle before crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“Maybe you should explain him first what this is about”

“Oh, yeah yeah, you right”, Nico exhaled an embarrassed laugh, “sorry, I forgot you weren’t here on Thursday”

The woman separated from Nero and approached her fist to her mouth to clear her throat in an exaggerated way.

“Let me introduce you to the new official means of transport of _Devil May Cry_ band!”

Nico finished the sentence signaling the van with her arms in a theatrically way while exhaling a loud ‘ _Tadaaaa_!’. Nero looked at her, at Trish and at the van in that order before signaling the vehicle with an unsure index finger.

“Are you saying that this thing still works?”

When seeing the way Nico’s enthusiastic face turned angry in an instant, Nero immediately regretted having said so.

“OI, what do you mean with _this thing_?”, Nero was pretty sure that he hadn’t used such a despective tone but before he could add anything Nico kept talking rather heatedly, “okay, I know that now it’s a little dirty and rather old and maaaaybe it has stalled half a dozen of times on my way here _BUT_ this girl has been with me since I was born and even if right now maybe it doesn’t look like it I’m sure that she has still miles and miles to go and--”

“It’s okay, dear, it’s okay”, Trish intervened with a soothing tone, probably seeing that at that rate Nico was going to die for lack of air in case of keeping talking without using pauses, “I really think that having this kind of vehicle would really come in handy: last year we had to give a concert in a village with really bad public transport connections and going there was really complicated. However…”, Trish’s tone turned apologetic, “...we need to make sure it’s safe enough to use it, or Morrison will do the same than when I insist on driving and won’t let us do it”

Nero thought that it was perfectly understandable that Morrison did that, he but preferred not to say so and focus on Nico, who suddenly looked really down.

“If you want, I could take a look at it”

The words escaped Nero’s mouth before even thinking, causing Nico’s eyes to illuminate again.

“Would you?!”

Nero couldn’t help to smile when hearing Nico’s hoping tone.

“Yeah. Maybe the stall problem can be simply solved by changing the battery, and also I’m sure that a good cleaning and some paint it’s all it- _she_ needs to--”

He was about to fall onto the floor when suddenly Nico jumped on him, enclosing her arms and legs around him as if she was an oversized koala.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank yo--!!”

“Nico, Nico, let Nero breath”, Trish exclaimed between laughs, causing the vocalist to finally release him.

“Ups, sorry man”, Nico apologized while Nero gasped for air.

“You know I won’t be able to do anything if I’m dead, right?”, he half-joked, causing Nico to chuckle before signaling the van with her thumb.

“Let’s begin then! I will show her to you so that you can give us your expert opinion!”

Nero smiled when Nico really meant that last part. He was about to follow the excited vocalist inside when Trish softly placed a hand on his shoulder and began to talk in a low voice so that only him could hear her.

“I think this van means a lot to her so it would be really nice to be able to use it”, Trish seemed to regret her words because she talked again with an apologetic tone, “but no pressure. The fact that you are willing to try is more than enough”

Nero snorted, looking at Trish while smiling cockily.

“Well, maybe it’s enough for you _but_ I will make sure to have that van rocking by lunch”

Trish chuckled when hearing Nero’s purposely overconfident tone and surprised him by depositing a soft kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you, Nero”

She said it with such sincerity that Nero found himself blushing a little before babbling something about finally joining Nico, confirming that definitely if he ever turned bi it would be the _Devil May Cry_ ’s ladies’ fault.

During the next half-an-hour Nico explained him absolutely all the characteristics of the van. After the super detailed guide, Nero noted that the only things that needed immediate fixing were finding out the cause of the engine stalling and to fix the shower, since the mini-fridge and toilet worked fine. The jukebox also failed sometimes but a couple of hits were all it needed to keep playing, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t a priority to fix even if Nico (and probably Lady) thought otherwise.

“So? What’s the verdict? Do you think we’ll be able to use it?”, Nico looked at Nero with such expectation that this one’s determination to make it work just increased.

“Yeah, I’m sure of it”, his confident tone caused Nico to exhale a relieved sigh, “although I will probably need some help with this. Do you know anything about mechanics?”

Nico snorted loudly, putting one of her hands on her hips while signaling herself with her other one.

“You bet I do!”, she pushed her curls back, “don’t you dare to think this gal is _just_ a pretty face with an awesome voice. I do have some brains too”

Nero chuckled when hearing Nico’s arrogant tone. He was about to tease her saying that the perfect gal just lacked courage to confess her feelings to certain keyboard player but he couldn’t do so because first, he definitely wasn’t one to talk, and second, because at that moment he heard the garage door opening, followed by the already familiar sound of a motorbike.

“It looks like your _roommate_ has just arrived”

Nero half-closed his eyes at Nico when hearing her teasing tone before opening the door of the van, leaning his hands over it in time to see Dante stepping out of the motorbike, some meters away from them.

“You’re late!”, he shouted, causing Dante, who was in the process of removing his helmet, to look at him briefly before focusing on the van.

“Wow, it’s Christmas and I didn’t know it?”, Dante asked while approaching the vehicle, causing Nico to laugh while joining Nero at the door.

“Yeah, something like that”, Nico enclosed an arm around Nero’s neck, leaning her head against his shoulder, “you wait to see it when Nero plays his magic”

Nero snorted before turning to look at Dante, already expecting a new stupid alias coming from him, but the guitarist was simply observing him with an expression that was slightly more serious than the one Nero was used to see him wear. However, when Dante talked next with his usual cheery, nonchalant tone, he deduced that, again, he was probably overthinking things.

“I don’t know, Nico, maybe Nero isn’t in the best condition to work. I think he had a pretty interesting weekend”

Nero chuckled again, assuming that Dante was referring to the conversation he had had with V in the motel about going all out on Saturday.

“Yeah, it was intense, but I lasted way more than I thought I would”, he admitted, since at the end V and him had arrived home when it was dawning, “I couldn’t feel my legs the next morning though”

He was about to add that Kyrie didn’t have any control in the dancing department when Dante intervened.

“Well, it definitely sounds like fun, kid. Good for you”

Nero frowned slightly. Dante’s tone had sounded as joking as always but he didn’t know why he had the feeling the comment hadn’t been entirely sincere. Also, he was pretty sure that the tension that was surrounding Dante’s body now wasn’t product of his imagination.

“Hey, Dante, would you like to see the van?”, Nico intervened then with an enthusiastic tone, causing the guitarist to chuckle before shaking his head negatively.

“Would love to but Trish will kill me if I don’t join them now, so maybe later”, he winked at them before turning around, waving his hand goodbye, “all the luck fixing the van. If you need something, we’ll be locked in the recording studio”

After Dante disappeared through the double doors, Nero kept staring at them during some seconds before talking.

“Hey, Nico”

“Yep?”

“Is it just me or Dante was kind of weird right now?”

“Really?”, Nico frowned, scratching her head before shrugging with an apologetic expression, “sorry, if he was I haven’t realized it”

Nero nodded to himself. Thinking logically about it, there wasn’t any reason why Dante should be weird around him. After all nothing had happened since the weekend, and besides the man had also the right of not being in a perpetual state of joking: maybe he was simply busy or thinking about something he didn’t want to share and for that reason he was more serious than usual. Yeah, that had sense, so after deciding not to overthink things for once he decided to get to work on the van with Nico.

Two hours later, Nero was really glad for not having dressed with his favorite clothes that day, because, as part of him was fearing, the engine problem wasn’t caused for the battery, but for something that wasn’t that evident and that made Nico and him spend a good amount of time under the vehicle, trying to figure it out the problem.

Eventually, the parts of their bodies that weren’t stained with oil and general dirtiness were clearly losing against the ones that were, and when Nero rolled out of the vehicle to enter it and check for twentieth time if the engine turned on properly, he couldn’t blame Nico when this one remained kneeling on the floor with her fingers interlaced in front of her in a praying position.

“Please, please, please, work this time, baby, you have to work this time. Do it for mommy, _pretty please_ ”

Nero was also praying internally, because if the car didn’t start, he honestly didn’t know if he would be able to fix it, so when he was sitting on the driver seat he exhaled a deep breath, and after closing his eyes he finally turned the key.

He was about to cry when the engine sounded perfectly.

“ _YEEEEEEEEAH_!”

Nero exhaled a long-relieved sigh while leaning back against the seat, resting for some seconds before stepping out of the car. This time he was prepared when Nico ran towards him in order to grab his hands, interlacing her fingers with his while jumping excitedly.

“We did it, we did it!!”

He laughed when Nico ran towards the van next and lean over its front, embracing her.

“Oh my god, I’m so glad”, Nero was surprised when Nico’s voice sounded slightly trembling, his eyes open wide when the woman had to gulp before talking, “I’ve lived here more than in my own home, you know? My grandma used to drive us to a lot of places. It was really funny”, Nico sobbed loudly, dying her eyes brusquely with the back of his fingers, “I’m so glad we are going to give it use. It broke my heart that it was simply gathering dust in that stupid house”

Nero smiled, approaching the van to lean against one of the lateral doors with his thumbs hooked inside his pockets. He couldn’t deny that he was curious about Nico’s parents, about where they were and about the reason why her grandmother had apparently been the one in taking care of her, but probably it was better to wait until she was willing to share that information, the same as she had done then.

“Just make sure that Trish doesn’t drive it or all our repairments will be for nothing”

Nico burst out laughing when hearing Nero’s comment, straightening her position to look at him with a smile.

“No way in hell: I’m the only one allowed to drive this beauty”

Nero chuckled.

“We’ll be saf _e_ r then”, he stopped leaning against the van, “come on, let’s go to tell the other the news”

Nero began to walk towards the double doors with Nico next to him. He had just taken a couple of steps when the girl enclosed both of arms around his waist in a side-hug that made him smile before enclosing an arm around her shoulders.

They kept in that certainly uncomfortable position until Nero had to separate from her to open the double doors leading to the corridor where the [recording studio](http://www.thejoint.org.uk/upload/images/sound/soundstage.jpg) was. Trish, Dante and Vergil’s voices could be heard from inside the door leading to it, so he knocked a couple of times.

The conversation continued but no one gave them permission to enter, so after interchanging a look with Nico, Nero knocked again, louder this time, and when they still didn’t obtain any answer they decided to enter nevertheless.

“--so basically, you are suggesting to ignore what Morrison has told us to do”, Trish was telling Vergil while standing in the middle of the room with her hands resting on her hips, talking with a tone that clearly indicated she was against whatever Vergil was proposing

“Yes, precisely that”, Vergil answered from the tall stool where he was sitting while softly playing his bass, one feet planted on the floor while the other was leaning on the foot support, “because I remind you that 8 days remain until the concert, among the ones only 5 are valid since there is a weekend in the middle and we won’t be able to do anything during the trip. Therefore, I think it’s pretty evident there’s no way to fulfill his request”

“But it has to be done now?”, Dante intervened then, while sitting too in another tall stool with both of his feet resting on the support, his arms crossed in front of his chest, “I mean, we have another concert at the start of the next year. Maybe we could wait until then”

“Well, I guess we could if there is no other option”, Trish admitted, “but we don’t know if Patty will be available by then, and if we do it right it can be the perfect way to introduce her”

“You know that such an ‘if’ is pretty important, right?”, Vergil commented once again, “a bad move and our new vocalist debut will be surely remembered but not precisely in the good way”

“Wait, what are you guys talking about?”

The twins and Trish were startled when hearing Nico’s confused question. It was evident that they hadn’t noticed the woman and Nero's presence until then.

“Holy cow”, Dante chuckled while looking at Nero and Nico, “did you at least won the battle against the van?”

Nero snorted.

“Yeah, but not against the oil”, he said signaling his even more gray t-shirt with a resigned gesture, causing Dante to chuckle again. Yes, definitely Nero must have imagined Dante’s previous tension because the man looked as relaxed as always.

“So…”, Nico approached the center of the room, looking at the members of _Devil May Cry_ with curiosity, “...what were you saying about a debut?”

During the next minutes Trish explained the situation to them. It turned out that Morrison had just called them telling the interview that was going to take place that Wednesday to finally introduce Nico as the new vocalist had been cancelled. Since there were still a lot of things to do in order to be ready for the concert, such as Nico practicing all the songs or the twins testing the flying system with their demonic suits on, it had been impossible to find another date for an interview. Therefore, the only option was that Nico made her debut directly on the concert.

However, they couldn’t simply introduce her before beginning to sing the group’s former songs, so Morrison had come up with a better solution: to write a song exclusively for Nico and begin the concert with her singing it while Patty accompanied her with her violin. That way, Nico would be presented with a completely new song, allowing people to actually see her talent before beginning to compare her with the former vocalists (which they knew would be unavoidable), and Patty would have time to properly say goodbye to the fans.

Nero thought to himself it was a rather good idea, but he also understood Vergil’s point of view, which the bassist proceeded to expose once again after Trish finished speaking.

“Look, I admit that if we had more time, it would certainly be the best way to introduce Nico”, Vergil conceded, “but let’s be realistic and accept that, within less than a week, having a new song ready when Lady is not here is nearly impossible”

Trish sighed, looking at Dante to see the man shrugging his shoulders, silently indicating that he was with his brother this time while Nico and Nero observed the scene in silence. Certainly, it had been bad timing that Lady was going to be out half of the week while filming a program about ‘ _Famous around the world_ ’, since the keyboards player together with Trish were the ones in charge of writing the songs’ lyrics, with occasional help from the twins who were in charge of the music. Lady had accepted participating on that show because, at the time, she was the one with less pending tasks, until that last situation came up.

“Well, I could try to think about the lyrics on my own”, Trish suggested, “but I’m not sure to be able to come up to something different enough from our usual music, which is the point of the whole song”

When hearing Trish’s comment, something clicked inside Nero’s head.

“And what if you ask someone else to write the lyrics?”, everyone turned to look at Nero with surprise, “that way it will be more likely to get a song different from _Devil May Cry_ style, right?”

Dante and Trish’s eyes illuminated, but of course Vergil was the one in seeing the inconvenient.

“Well, that would be indeed the best solution”, Nero wasn’t surprised when Vergil’s tone turned slightly sarcastic, “if it wasn’t because we would need to find someone within a really short period of time, and that were trustful enough to guarantee they would be able to keep their mouths shut about the whole situation, so unless you know someone that fulfills these characteristic--”

“I do”

Nero had to suppress a satisfied smile when his interruption caused Vergil to stop talking, mouth still half-opened before the bassist realized he had to close it.

“Really?”, Dante asked with surprise, “who?”

“V”, since Nero immediately turned to look at Vergil to keep talking, he missed to see the way Dante’s jaw tensed for a brief moment, “he writes poems for a living, and he will definitely keep the secret”

“And will he agree to do us this favor?”, Trish inquired with hesitation, as if she wasn’t daring to let her hopes up yet.

“Yeah”, Nero said with security, “it will take some convincing but I know him well: he will accept, so if you want I can give him a call now”

Trish looked at Vergil, silently asking if he was fine with it, but to everyone surprise this one turned to look at Dante, who was unexpectedly silent.

“What do you think, brother? Do _you_ agree with this?”

Dante seemed to snap out of his thoughts because when he answered his tone was a little distracted.

“Y-Yeah, of course. We are in a pinch right now so all the help will be welcome”

Nero was busy palming his pockets with an exasperated expression to notice that Dante’s tone sounded a little different than usual, as if the guitarist was forcing himself to make it sound as cheery as always.

“Shit”

“You forgot your mobile again?”, Nico asked with a teasing tone.

Nero’s curse was enough answer so that Nico offered him her own mobile.

“It’s a luck I have his number memorized”, he muttered to himself while typing, this time missing the way Vergil looked out of the corner of his eyes at Dante with a little smirk playing at his lips.

“Then it’s decided”, Trish looked at Nero with gratitude, “thank you very much, Nero. Please, don’t forget to tell him that we will obviously pay him for the trouble”

“And also…”, Vergil suddenly intervened, “...tell him that it will be really helpful if he could come here today to begin to work on it right now”

“ _What_?”

Nero, who was about to press the call button, was surprised when Dante suddenly let that out, before beginning to talk with a hurried tone.

“I mean, won’t we be asking him too much? He will be surely working, so telling him to suddenly come here…”

“Oh, that’s not a problem”, Nero reassured Dante immediately, approaching Nico’s phone to his ear, “he works at home most part of the days so if he takes the next bus he can be here within an hour”

Dante’s expression was way too imperturbable when answering with a simple ‘ _Nice_ ’, but Nero was already waiting for V to pick up the call so he didn’t notice the light resigned tone Dante used, neither the way Vergil muttered a low ‘ _How convenient_ ’ while looking at his little tense brother with barely suppressed amusement.

As expected, it took Nero around ten minutes to convince V to abandon his organized schedule in order to go there, but the poet eventually accepted after Nero promised that he would do anything he wanted during the next week (obviously referring to housework even if certain guitarist didn’t seem to understand it that way for the way he tensed).

“Done”, Nero announced, returning Nico her phone with a smile.

Trish let out a relieved sigh and approached him with the intention of hugging him, just before remembering the state of Nero’s clothes.

“I will hug you when you change clothes”, she commented, causing Nero to chuckle before abandoning the studio back to the main room with Nico.

His predictions about the time it was going to take V to reach _Devil May Cry_ office were pretty accurate because exactly 50 minutes later Nico’s mobile began to sound.

The woman warned him about that from inside the van, where she was putting some order while Nero had come back to work on the adaptation of the flying system, so after briefly checking that all the new calculations seemed to be right, he practically ran up the stairs.

He saw V through the shop window, his mobile still in hand and carrying a bag with the other.

He wasn’t surprised when V looked at him from head to toe with a disgusted expression after he opened the door.

“It’s worse than I thought”

Nero smirked, knowing well his neat, clean-obsessed friend to foresee his next reaction.

“Come on, who wants a hug?”, Nero joked, approaching V with his arms extended and causing this one to take a step backwards with a half-scared half-threatening expression.

“ _Don’t_ you dare”

Nero began to laugh when hearing V’s murdering tone, stepping aside so that the poet finally could enter the antique shop with a gunny expression of patience. When V removed his coat Nero was about to tease him saying that his current attire was perfect to hide stains, since it consisted of dark jeans and a black V-neck t-shirt under an also black overshirt, but V had done more than enough going there out of the blue so Nero decided it wouldn’t be wise to test his luck.

“Thanks a lot for coming”, he said sincerely while beginning to climb down the stairs once again, “were you too busy today?”

“Of course I was. But…”, V looked at Nero with a small grin, “...it will be interesting to watch you and you-know-who interact in your natural habitat”

“Hey, what do you think I am? An animal?”

“Do I really have to answer?”

“...Keep talking and you won’t be paid”

“Nero, are you sure it’s wise to threaten the person who knows that you have a crush on--”

“ _V_ …!”

Deep inside Nero knew that V wasn’t going to say anything, but he couldn’t help to let out a squawked sound that made V begin to chuckle while Nero exhaled a resigned sigh. He leaned his hand on V’s shoulder in order to whisper the next sentence in his ear.

“By the way, if you took a look at Vergil, you’d do me a favor”

“Why?”

“Because I think he also knows I like _you-know-who_?”

“Really? Are you _that_ obvious?”

“Okay, why is it always my fault?! Maybe it’s the man who is way too observant”

“You have a point but I know well your lack of discretion, so probably you are the main culprit”

Nero was about to protest again but at that moment his heart skipped a beat when suddenly seeing Dante standing in front of his workspace, giving his back to him while looking at the plans.

“Wow, kid, these improvements look pretty cool. Do you think we’ll have time to test it later toda--?”,

Dante, who was turning around while talking and who seemed to have assumed that Nero was the only one approaching, stopped talking when seeing V next to him. There was a brief pause, which Nero felt a little awkward, before Dante shook lightly his head in order to smile at V even if his gaze kept being inquisitive.

“So, you must be the famous V”, the guitarist extended a hand towards him, “nice to finally meet you”

V took the hand Dante was offering him, shaking it with more firmness that Dante seemed to be expecting for the way this one eyes opened slightly more for a moment.

“I should be the one in saying that”, V replied, “Nero hasn’t stopped talking about this place and about you”

Nero knew V well enough to know that that the bastard had said that purposely ambiguous ‘you’ on purpose, so that it was not clear if he was talking about Dante himself or about the whole group in general.

However, the fact that Dante didn’t make any joking comment about it, deciding to simply nod instead, indicated that the guitarist had understood the second, and Nero didn’t know if feeling relieved or annoyed about the fact. Maybe a little of both.

“Well then, let’s not waste more time”, Dante signaled towards the double doors with his thumb and shook his head towards it, “the others are really looking forward to meeting you”

Since Dante immediately began to walk towards the doors without giving signs of proceeding with the conversation, Nero simply followed him while walking side by side with V. He spent the rather short walk talking to the poet, who told him about the necessity of beginning to arrange the new room for Shadow because the panther had grown incredibly fast and it wasn’t feasible anymore that it kept sleeping on V’s bed.

“I fail to see the fun aspect in this Nero”, V was saying with his eyes half-closed while this one began to chuckle, remembering how that same morning he had needed to help V escape from under Shadow, who had fallen asleep on him.

“Oh, you do?”, Nero was about to reach for his mobile to show V the picture he had taken of him while being trapped under the feline when remembering he didn’t have it.

“Are you looking for this?”, V asked with a smirk, reaching for his pocket and swinging Nero’s device in front of him before finally returning it to him.

“Thanks”, Nero said, but he realized he had talked too soon when discovering that that picture had been removed. He half-closed his eyes at V, who elegantly shrugged his shoulders.

“Your fault for having such an easy password”

Nero bit his tongue not to answer when V’s eyes briefly wandered towards Dante in front of them, since Nero’s key had been the date of the first concert he went to see of the _Devil May Cry_ band for a while.

“Well, here we are”, Dante announced, causing Nero to be about to jump a little startled for the brusque way the guitarist opened the door of the studio, “can you introduce him to the rest? There’s a couple of things I have to take care of”

At any other moment Nero would have teased Dante pretending to be impressed for the guitarist having something to do, but somehow he felt that the mood wasn’t the adequate to do that, even if Dante’s stance looked almost as relaxed as always.

“Yes, sure”, Nero simply said at the end, causing Dante to smile briefly before beginning to walk towards his room.

He was about to enter with V when this one suddenly turned towards him.

“By the way, this is yours”

“Oh, yeah”, Nero grabbed the bag V had brought him with a change of clothes and when looking inside he couldn’t prevent his eyes half-closing before looking at the poet, who simply smiled ‘innocently’.

“You should have been more specific about the clothes you wanted”, he said as if that was enough to justify the red t-shirt he had brought him, a clothing that Nero had mentioned more than once he planned to discard.

“ _You_ …”

“Well, you have heard Dante”, the bastard said without giving Nero time to protest, his amused smile still in place, “let’s get to work”

Nero exhaled a resigned sigh while following V inside the recording studio, thinking for thousandth time that it was a miracle that he hadn’t murdered his best friend yet.

* * *

After introducing V to Trish and Vergil and not being surprised at all when the poet and the bassist seemed to get alone, Nero abandoned the recording studio in order to continue working.

He briefly entered the bathroom, wondering if it wouldn’t be better to keep dressing the stained t-shirt instead of wearing _that_ clothing. Eventually, he decided to go for the second, not wanting to risk to accidentally stain the mechanism he was working on since, this time, it would be the definitive.

Nero cursed while looking at himself in the mirror. To be honest it wasn’t that the t-shirt was ugly per se, but definitely it wasn’t something he would wear at work, since that too open neck almost reached the middle of his chest and it adjusted to his body in a way that didn’t leave very much to the imagination. He uselessly tried to make the clothing looser by expanding it, but when hearing a tearing sound coming from it he surrendered, deciding that the last thing he needed was to expose even more skin.

After dressing with it he walked all the fast he could towards the main room, happy to be able to avoid everyone on his way there.

He worked during the next two hours without interruptions, until Nico suddenly approached his workplace.

“Hey Nero, do you think you could check the shower now? Since I’m almost finished cleaning insid--”, Nico stopped talking, and when seeing the woman looking at him suppressing a laugh immediately talked.

“Not a word”, he snapped with a threat that came more like a plea, causing the woman to bark a laugh.

“Well, definitely V knows how to highlight your attributes”

Nero answered with a huff, causing Nico to laugh again. He had already told her the story about V tricking him to go to the audition, and about his insistence of doing something else than simply staying in a ‘ _Senpai notice me_ ’ attitude (Kyrie’s words, not his), so it wasn’t weird that the woman had guessed that his current attire was V’s fault.

“It’s not _that_ bad”, Nico surprised him by saying, “okay, you could use a size more”

“Yeah, and also a couple of more buttons”, Nero snorted.

“But you look hot on it”, Nico surprised Nero by winking at him, causing this one to exhale a resigned laugh while shaking his head before going towards the van.

He and Nico spent the following half-an-hour examining the shower, and just when Nero had deduced that the problem was somehow related to a bad connection between the two taps installed in the bathroom, they heard heavy steps approaching.

“Hey, love”

At that moment Dante, who was obviously addressing Nico, appeared in front of the door, just when Nero was kneeling inside the shower trying to adjust the leaking tap while Nico handled him the corresponding tools.

“You busy?”

Nero answered before even thinking.

“Nah, we just resting”

His ironic, grazing sarcastic words caused Dante to exhale a chuckle before turning towards Nico.

“They have the first version of the song ready”

“What? Already?”, the woman exclaimed with surprise.

“Yeah. Even Vergil had difficulties to hide he was pretty impressed”, Dante surprised Nero by rolling up the sleeves of the dark garnet t-shirt he was wearing, “so can you go to the recording studio to see how it sounds while I help the kid?”

“Sure!”

Nico left the rest of the tools on the floor and after patting Nero’s back softly she disappeared outside the van with a last ‘ _Don’t break anything!_ ’.

“Thought you were busy too”, Nero commented while Dante managed to kneel next to him, observing what Nero was doing with interest.

“Yeah, but I finished already”, Nero felt his heart skip a beat because the bathroom was everything but big and he could feel Dante’s body almost touching his, “so I’m free to be your assistant, Mr. Plumber”

Nero rolled his eyes but just for the sake of pretending to be annoyed by the appellative, since he was glad that Dante’s teasing was back. He had kind of missed it during the morning.

They spent the next minutes working on the tap, Nero occasionally asking Dante the tools he needed and Dante handling them obediently. Eventually, Nero stood up.

“Okay, I think this should work already”, he removed some sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand before keeping talking, “can you come here while I check the sink?”

Dante didn’t answer immediately, and when Nero looked at the guitarist he suppressed a gulp when seeing this one’s eyes fixed on the t-shirt before meeting his eyes again. Nero was about to snap that it had been V’s fault when Dante talked again with a super casual tone.

“Sure. What do you want me to do?”

Nero insulted himself when those words made him think about something quite inappropriate and with a little of difficulty he managed to step out of the shower, changing places with Dante.

“I need you to tell me if water begins to leak from the shower”, Nero said, stepping next to the sink to open the tap, “I think that the problem must be a bad connection between the two pipelines, but theoretically with the last adjustment the shower should work oka--”

For once, Nero’s calculations weren’t as accurate as usual, and when he opened the sink tap, expecting that some drops fell from the shower one at most, the last thing he and also Dante were expecting was that the shower turned somehow on with a power that was pretty insane, causing a cascade of water to fall over Dante leaving him completely soaked.

Nero didn’t move for the next seconds, hand still on the tap and mouth and eyes completely opened in horror.

“Well...”, Dante eventually said with an unusual calm tone, shaking his arms twice before looking at him with a glint in his eyes that Nero didn’t like one bit, “...I’m not an expert _but_ I think it could still use some improvement”

Nero forced himself to stop getting distracted for the way the damp clothing outlined the front of Dante’s muscles in order to properly apologize, but before he could do that he got pale when seeing Dante getting a hold of the shower head with a smirk, eyes still locked on Nero.

“No, no, Dante, wait, don’t--”

But Nero’s pleas went to waste when Dante suddenly snapped opened the shower tap and pointed at Nero with the shower head, causing this one to have barely time to close the door of the bathroom before kneeling down to avoid the water jet.

" _HAH_! You failed!"

Nero immediately knew that he shouldn’t have said that when seeing the way Dante’s eyes passed to shine with challenge. Also, he knew that, considering Dante’s lack of maturity in the current situation, probably it should be him the one in acting like the responsible adult by pointing out that flooding the bathroom in a water battle wasn’t something they should be doing.

But despite being aware of all that, the only thing he did when Dante pointed at him with the shower head again was to rapidly lunge against the shower, beginning to fight with Dante for the weapon’s dominance.

“Oh, no, kid, I don’t think s--”

Dante was forced to shut up when between curses and laughs Nero managed to twist the shower head so that the next water impact went against the guitarist’s face.

“What were you saying, old man?”, Nero teased, and oh god, he knew he was dead when seeing Dante’s determined expression, but it was so worth it that he didn’t quite mind when Dante recovered the shower head and he just managed to protect his face with one arm when the new water attack left him completely soaked, while trying to get a hold on the shower head it with the other.

“Give up, kid”, Dante warned with a purposely condescending tone that made him sound quite similar to his brother for a moment, “you can’t win this battl-- _!_ ”

This time, it wasn’t Nero’s attack what interrupted Dante’s sentence, but the fact that Nero slipped with a loud curse when trying to change position. Dante immediately released the shower head and managed to catch him when he was slipping down, Nero’s hands gripping the first thing they reached that resulted to be the front of Dante’s t-shirt with the predictable result of Nero dragging Dante with him to the wet floor.

Nero’s heartbeat, which was beginning to normalize after the scare, accelerated once again when realizing the position they were in: his legs opened and Dante between them while half-bending over him, one of Dante’s hands gripping his hip while the other was placed on the shower wall next to Nero’s head, and, the thing that made Nero hold his breath, Dante’s face inches apart from his own, due to the fact that Nero’s hands were still getting a hold on Dante’s clothing, accidentally keeping him there.

Without averting his eyes from Dante’s ones, which were burying into him with an intensity that made Nero feel his heart skip a new beat, he softly released the guitarist so that this one could put some distance between them, since Nero had the wall against his back, preventing him from moving.

But Dante didn’t move.

The guitarist just gulped softly while Nero focused all his efforts not to fall into the temptation of diverting his eyes from Dante’s eyes to his lips, fearing that in case of doing that the obvious tension hanging between them snapped in a way that Nero was sure he would enjoy but maybe just in the short term.

_Knock knock_

 

“Nero, what do you have the mobile for? Kyrie has called me because the Internet isn’t working on the shelter and you weren’t--”

Nero and Dante broke eye contact when at that moment the door of the bathroom opened to reveal V talking through his mobile, the poet’s eyes opening wide because of the sight before a smirk that Nero knew very well passed to adorn his face.

“--picking up”, V completed, causing Nero to suppress a resigned sigh, mentally preparing himself for when V (and surely Kyrie) teased him about the whole situation, “sorry Kyrie, Nero will call you later. Now he is a little _busy_ ”

Nero, who was about to glare at V, stopped when suddenly Dante separated from him brusquely, standing up in such a hurry that he was about to trip again.

“Look, this is not what it looks like”, Nero’s eyes snapped open when seeing Dante begin to apologize to V, who looked almost as confused as Nero was at that moment, “and I swear I wasn’t trying to put the moves on him: we just tripped”, Dante exhaled a light nervous laugh, “although probably that was my fault because it was me the one who began getting Nero wet--I-I mean, to throw water at him, so--”

Still on the floor Nero blinked, completely lost about what was happening at the moment. He looked at V in time to see a knowing grin appearing on the poet’s face before interrupting Dante with an utterly amused tone.

“Dante, do you perhaps think that Nero and I are together?”

Dante, who was still saying worse and worse excuses, shut up at once, while Nero almost strained his neck when looking at Dante again, waiting for the guitarist’s reaction which consisted of blinking while his mouth ended half-opened.

“You aren’t?”, he asked cautiously, which contrasted with the way Nero snorted loudly at the same time that V said a cutting ‘ _Of course not_ ’, as if such a thing was unthinkable.

“No, we aren’t”, Nero couldn’t help to exclaim, finally standing up with his eyes fixed on Dante on disbelief, “why the hell did you think that?”

“Hey, I’m not the only one!”, Dante defended himself, “Lady just happened to be in the same disco where you two were on Saturday and she saw you kissing, so we all assumed that you were--”

“What the fuck?! We didn’t kiss!”, Nero exclaimed.

“Indeed, we were just pretending to do so”, V pointed out, “although the mistake is understandable if she saw us from far away”

Dante looked at V, then at Nero and then signaled between them a couple of times with his index finger.

“So, then you are saying there’s _nothing_ between you two”

“Hell no. We just slept together once”

When seeing the way V pinched the bridge of his nose with patience Nero realized that probably giving such an information hadn’t been particularly necessary  He opened his mouth to try to fix it but V seemed to be afraid of him giving more unnecessary details because he was the one in talking instead, addressing Dante with a completely natural, casual tone.

“Which means that you are free to put as many moves on him as you want”

Nero felt his ears burning when hearing V’s words. He was suppressing the urge of approaching the poet to strangle him but his attention shifted to Dante when this one’s reaction was to laugh loudly and with a hint of relief.

In fact, now that Nero paid attention, the general tension that had been surrounding the guitarist during all the morning was completely gone.

“Duly noted”

Nero felt his throat go dry when Dante’s eyes playfully landed on him after saying that sentence with a teasing tone.

Okay, if that wasn’t fucking flirting Nero didn’t know what the hell it was.

Also, now that he thought about it, the times in which Dante had acted a little weird coincided with the times V was around or had been mentioned.

Nero’s heart stopped for a moment with the revelation, because unless he was overlooking something, such behavior was really similar to how he acted when Dante was involved with women, and if that was the case…

...could it really be that, as V and Kyrie had insisted him more than once, Dante was _really_ beginning to be interested in him?

“Guys? How is the fixing going? Do you need help?”

Once again, the tension that had settled between him and Dante was broken when hearing Nico’s voice coming from the van’s door, both of them getting pale when picturing the woman’s reaction when seeing the state of the bathroom.

“They are still on it”, V suddenly said, stepping out on the cubicle and closing the door with Nero and Dante still inside, not without offering them a mischievous smile first, “but probably they will have it ready in an hour at most”

Nero was about to protest saying that surely an hour wasn’t enough but he didn’t want to risk to face Nico’s anger, so he simply remained in silence inside the bathroom with Dante until they heard Nico and V’s steps fading.

“Well, I guess I’m in charge of the cleaning”, Dante said with a resigned tone while Nero snorted.

“Don’t you dare to protest: I have to fix this and I don’t even know where to begin”

Nero was about to begin to rapidly work on the sink tap when Dante suddenly stopped in the door.

“I’m going to get changed first”, Dante signaled at Nero’s drenched persona with his jaw, “I can lend you some clothes too if you want”

The image of him wearing Dante’s clothes caused a small short-circuit in Nero’s brain, so he forced himself to sound super casual before answering.

“Oh. Yeah. Thanks”

He was about to come back to work when Dante spoke again.

“Although they will be looser than that t-shirt you are wearing. Hope you don’t mind”

Nero felt the tip of his ears reddening when hearing the teasing on Dante’s words, and when he turned to look at the guitarist he found him smirking with amusement.

Probably his past self would have simply snorted, not daring to fall into that game for the consequences, but the fact that now the possibility of Dante actually being interested in him was actually there, he risked his luck with a different reaction.

“Nah, no problem”, Nero mimicked Dante’s posture by signaling himself with both of his hand from head to toe before talking with an acceptable overconfident tone, “I know it must be distracting to work with such a stunning man”

Dante began to laugh when hearing Nero’s comment, but to this one surprise, the guitarist’s tone when talking next sounded more seductive than teasing.

“Oh, yes. You bet it is”

The only thing Nero could do while Dante abandoned the bathroom winking at him was to stare at the closed door with his eyes and mouth opened wide, before opening briefly the sink tap to splash some water against his now slightly burning face.

Shit.

Maybe waiting until the concert was over wasn’t going to be as easy as he had imagined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know how this damn chapter became so big BUT at least things between Nero and Dante are _finally_ advacing a little xDDD  
> Since the next chapter (unless there aren't unexpected changes for wild ideas appearing out of the blue) will probably be the concert, maybe it takes me a little more to update, but as always I will try to do it ASAP <3 ;)


	10. The concert (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically the concert was going to happen in this chapter but, as usual, I suck at estimating my chapters -.-  
> But I hope the Devil May Cry shenanigans, Nero's thirst and the flirting make up for it :P
> 
> Also, for the ones interested I have updated a one-shot of Nero and V about their crazy night two years prior this fic xDD You can find it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18880426) :)

“You sure you don’t wanna come?”

Nero suppressed a smile when hearing V click his tongue from the sofa, anticipating the poet’s answer.

“Thank you for the invitation, but you know that I have never seen the appeal of concerts”

Nero rolled his eyes with patience, finally closing his bag after having verified that, this time, he hadn’t forgotten anything important. He turned towards V, who was sitting on the sofa while using Shadow (who was as big as Rottweiler already) as his personal footrest while typing on the laptop situated on his extended legs, while Griffon stood on the sofa arm not very far away from them.

“Yeah yeah, I know: ‘too many sweaty, smelly people crushing you’”

“Glad to see you actually listen to me sometimes”

Nero shook his head with patience before finally putting his bag on. It was almost 7 a.m. so theoretically Nico and the others were going to pick him up to drive to the city where the concert would finally take place that same night.

Even if initially the plan had been to travel the day prior, eventually the group had decided that it was better to spend the morning of Tuesday 30th ultimating the last details while devoting the afternoon to transport all the instruments and the costumes to the van. The organization process was more difficult than anticipated because the room that once was Nico’s grandma’s workshop wasn’t suitable to have more than a couple of people working around, so managing to coordinate in order to make everything fit inside had been worse than playing Tetris in hardcore mode.

Also, the choice of using Nico’s old car had been something that hadn’t been decided until that same Monday, since on the one hand the van would give them all the privacy and freedom they needed to keep practicing and working, but on the other it would be a 6 hours trip to the city, so their time to rest after having lunch and before having to get ready for the concert (which began at 8.00 p.m.) would be scarce.

After holding a vote, the decision of using the van won with 6 votes against 2. The last ones came from Vergil, who obviously preferred to travel more comfortably in a VIP train wagon, and Morrison, who commented that probably the members of _Devil May Cry_ were already too old to stand such a tiring journey. That last comment caused Dante and Trish to immediately begin to protest offended while Vergil’s eye twitched in annoyance, the only one turning deaf ears to the comment being Lady since, according to her, she was _way_ younger than the rest even if she was just 4 years younger than Trish.

At least Morrison’s concerns about their age had the positive effect of reducing Vergil’s protests, who was apparently determined to prove the old man wrong. The bassist even commented that they could invest some time beginning to prepare the songs of their new disk, which made Nero think that maybe Morrison had just gone after the initial idea on purpose in order to make Vergil less reluctant about it.

“So, do you have everything?”, V inquired when Nero was already approaching the door, “mobile, wallet…”

 _“_ Yeah, _mum_ ”

 _“_...protection?”

Nero frowned when he was about to open the door.

“Protection? What do you mean with--?”, Nero stopped mid-sentence, glaring at V when finally noticing this one’s grin, “ha ha ha”

“What? It’s better being safe than sorry”

“Okay: first, you could simply say condoms like a normal human being. And second, _HAH_!”

“My apologies, but I’m unfamiliar with the meaning of that last interjection”

Nero exhaled a long, exasperated sigh.

“You perfectly know what I mean”

“Well, I guess that you are thinking that the possibilities of Dante and you engaging in any kind of physical activity tonight are scant...”

“V, for goodness sake--”

“... _but_ by taking into consideration the obvious sexual tension that I witnessed in the van, I don’t think it’s such an absurd idea”

Nero sighed again, but now he was hesitating.

At this point he would have to be blind not to see that Dante felt a minimum of attraction towards him. It was true that during the week the guitarist’s way of interacting with him with innuendos and dumb jokes hadn’t particularly changed, but now there was an obvious chemistry between them that definitely wasn’t there before, or that at least hadn’t been as evident until the incident of the bathroom.

In fact, Nero was pretty sure that he wasn’t the only one anymore in feeling the urge of settling their already usual teasing battles with their mouths but without speaking. But well, it seemed that Dante (and himself) were more responsible than people seemed to think, and that somehow a silent, mutual agreement had been established between them during the past week not to cross the teasing/flirting territory in order to focus on their work.

But damn, maybe V was right: that ‘agreement’ could easily finish that night, after the concert, so what if, somehow, Nero’s feelings came to light that night? What if Dante happened to feel the same? And what if the confession didn’t just end as a verbal one?

Shit. Now he was equally nervous and excited for the possible outcomes.

 

_Piiiiiii!!_

“Shit!”, Nero jumped in his seat startled when hearing the intercom sound.

He had just opened the door of the apartment when, in the last second, he turned around to go back to his room. He had barely taken a couple of steps when suddenly V threw something at him. Nero automatically caught it and looked at V in disbelief when realizing it was the box of condoms he thought he had inside _his_ wardrobe.

“You are welcome”, the bastard said with an obliging smile, causing Nero to snort while extracting a couple of them from the box to put them inside his bag, just before adding another two after deciding there was no charge for dreaming.

“So rummaging between my things doesn’t count as a ‘violation of privacy’?”, he said with irony, referring to the times V had reproached him entering his room without knocking.

“In my defense I will say I didn’t need to rummage, since they were still in the same place”

Nero simply rolled his eyes when hearing V’s absurd justification, leaving the apartment with a resigned smile on his face.

He climbed down the stairs rapidly and reached the street door when Nico was about to hit the doorbell again.

“Yo!”, she greeted with a wide smile that Nero returned, “you ready?”

“Hell yeah”, Nero answered imitating her tone and making her laugh.

She followed her inside the van and when the door of the car opened Nero learned that the car was more soundproof than he thought, because definitely the ruckus taking place inside clearly contrasted with the calm of the street.

“Hey!! Vergil, I was sitting on that chair!”

“Exactly, you _were_ , but you lost your right to have it when standing up”

“That’s not fair! I was just out for two minutes to pee!”

“Lady, dear, with saying that you had to go to the toilet was enough”

“Well, be glad that I didn’t need to take a--”

“ _LADY_!”

“Daaaaanteeee~!”

“What did I do this time?”

“I can’t find my violin! Are you sure you packed it…? Oh, here it is! Never mind~”

“Good morning, Nero”, the named one’s attention diverted from the crazy party taking place inside the van to look at Morrison in the driver seat, “put as comfortable as you can”

“Nerooo!!”

Before he was able to go further inside the van, a tall, blonde and rather stunning young woman that he immediately recognized as Patty ran towards him and surprised him by hugging him tightly.

“We finally meet!!”, she separated from him, staring at him from head to toe without any shame, “oh my, they weren’t exaggerating. You are super super handsome ❤”

The emphatic compliment made Nero automatically blush, which obviously caused Dante, who had managed to take a good seat on the left side of the sofa next to Trish, to bark a laugh.

“Sorry, love, there’s nothing you can do. You are too feminine for him”

Nero couldn’t deny Dante’s words, but it wouldn’t be funny to simply agree with him, would it?

“Well, I can always find out that I like women too. It happens sometimes”

Nero made sure to talk with all the casualness he could gather, but damn, the way the guitarist’s eyes glinted playfully caused his stomach to tighten a little.

Okay, maybe he had to chill out because not even a minute had passed since meeting with Dante and the flirting was already there. He had to get a hold of himself but shit, it was going to be difficult.

“Nico, babe, my seat has been taken”, Lady said then with a pouting tone that soon changed into an enthusiastic one while approaching the copilot seat, where Nico was already sitting, “so make me some space, ‘kay?”

Nero noticed that Lady could perfectly fit on the sofa between Dante and Trish, since the empty chair next to the small table at which Vergil was sitting was now occupied by Patty, but when seeing the way Lady pressed herself against Nico and entangled her arm around the vocalist’s one with the excuse of not falling when Morrison began to drive, he guessed that his suggestion wouldn’t be welcome at all.

And now that he noticed...where the hell was he going to sit? Because the space left in the sofa definitely wasn’t enough for him. Well, he guessed he could if Trish and Dante didn’t mind to be a little cramped but probably it was better to try to find the folded chair he had seen somewhere the previous day…

“Are you really waiting for an invitation, kid?”, Nero didn’t realize that he had been standing in front of the sofa wondering what to do until Dante spoke with a nonchalant tone, “come on, we have showered together already. There’s no reason to be shy now”

“That you did what?!”, Patty exclaimed, her big blue eyes shining with interest while the others laughed and Nero simply ‘glared’ at Dante, since their attempts of hiding the ruckus caused in the bathroom after their water battle had been pointless, resulting in everyone but Patty having found out about it.

“Don’t listen to him”, Nero said, his eyes still locked on the guitarist’s while rolling back his shoulders to remove his jacket, “it’s just his wishes talking”

Nero’s purposely arrogant tone caused Lady to shout a loud ‘ _Oooouch_!’ that was immediately seconded by all the ladies.

Dante’s reaction was simply to half-close his eyes at Nero’s cocky expression, even if his smirk kept being in place while leaning his left arm on the back of the sofa oh-so-casually at the same time that crossed his legs.

Nero finally dropped on the sofa between Trish (who had subtly leaned against the sofa arm to read) and Dante, feeling the guitarist’s fingers softly brushing his shoulder in a feathery way that wasn’t unpleasant at all.

“Wait, Morrison!”, Nico poked her head over her seat to look at Nero, “you sure you haven’t forgotten anything, bro?”

A part of him couldn’t help to picture the others’ reaction if he decided to answer sincerely, but he preferred to answer by simply shaking his head, causing Nico to stick her tongue out at him.

Certainly, the woman had the right of teasing him about that because the times in which he forgot something were more abundant than the ones he didn’t.

The first half of the trip passed quite quickly, since at some point Nico decided to reluctantly disentangle herself from Lady in order to practice her debut song with Patty. At that moment Vergil suggested/ordered to get some work done, and despite Lady and Dante’s protests when Trish agreed with the bassist everyone got to work on the new songs of the album that would be released in the middle of the next year.

Nero abandoned the sofa at that point and walked to the front of the van to sit next to Morrison so that the group could discuss the new themes more comfortably. He could barely suppress the urge of commenting something when catching the way Dante’s eyes stopped briefly at his ass before rapidly joining the others’ discussion again, but considering that he did the same when he thought the guitarist wasn’t looking he decided to let it be, simply thinking to himself that it had been a good idea to wear his good jeans that day.

With his feet leaned on the car dashboard he spent some time playing some dumb but entertaining games in his mobile while smiling when hearing the twins arguing and Trish trying to put some order, since usually Lady’s comments just served to add fuel to the fire. He had lost track of how many times Trish had let out a reproaching ‘Guys, _please’_ (he managed to count 17 in two hours) when he suddenly received an email.

Nero frowned while clicking on it, his eyes opening briefly in recognition when recognizing the email address as the one that appeared in the card Hank gave him when they visited the filming studio.

In the email Hank began wishing him luck for the concert, since he wouldn’t be able to be there due to other commitments, passing rapidly to mention that he had been talking to some colleagues about Nero and his ‘impressive work and talent to come up with efficient solutions’. Hank said next that some of them had showed quite an interest in meeting him, and that even if he was aware that Nero’s current contract was with _Devil May Cry_ , it wouldn’t hurt to have other available options.

After the final goodbye the man had attached some links that Nero proceeded to check, and which caused his eyes to open wide when realizing that the people showing interest worked in really famous companies. In fact, one of them was a rather recognized Filming Studio that seemed to be hiring people for their Art Department, in which the construction and building of scenarios was included.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are halfway to our destination”, Morrison suddenly announced while Nero was still focused on his mobile, “should we stop for the elders or do you prefer to keep going?”

“You have some nerve, Morrison”, Dante exclaimed from the sofa with a mocking smile, “you sure _you_ aren’t the one who needs to stop?”

“Son, let me tell you that for being in my fifties--”

“ _Fifties_? You will be 60 in two months!”

“...Maybe, but for now I’m still 59 so as I was saying, for being in my _fifties_ I’m in an admirable condition and I can keep this rhythm for almost all day”

When hearing Lady giggle, Nero could perfectly imagine the way Vergil had skeptically raised an eyebrow, since the bassist’s reactions used to make Lady laugh a lot, to this one’s frustration.

“Well, it seems we aren’t stopping”, Dante commented when everyone had agreed on keeping going, standing up to lean his crossed arms on the top of Nero’s seat, “although if you change your mind we are still in time to stop in the best place ever, right Nero?”

Nero snorted softly, raising his face a little to look at Dante’s face.

“You mean that motel?”

“Wait, was it that bad?”, Lady inquired with curiosity when seeing the way Nero huffed after Dante nodded with amusement.

“If Dante is complaining about its quality I can’t even imagine how horrible it was”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It wasn’t bad”, Nero intervened before Dante and Vergil could begin to fight again, “the breakfast they served was pretty good and the beds were small but rather comfy”

“Then what was the problem?”, Trish intervened this time with interest, causing Nero and Dante to interchange a brief look before the first kept talking with a resigned tone.

“The walls were paper thin”

“And we had background music worthy of a porn”

“Dante!”, Trish exclaimed even if she was about to join Lady’s loud laughs at any moment.

“As elegant as always, brother”, Vergil commented laconically, which made the ladies and Nero this time laugh again while Morrison shook his head with patience.

“What? Just saying the truth”

“Dante, don’t want to be that bitch but you should be the last one in complaining for being loud”

“Well, it’s not my fault to be _that_ good to make my partners cry in pleasure”

“Dear, I think Lady meant that _you_ are the one in being loud”

“What?!”

“Excuse me but listening about my brother’s private affairs is the last thing I want to do”

“Flee now that you can, Vergil. Some of us are stuck here to drive”

“Wait wait wait, Lady, what do you mean with that? Trish, do you agree with her?!”

“Dante, do you really want to have this conversation right now?”

“Look, it’s easy to understand: when you and Trish had sex next to my room I heard you more than I heard her, so it’s evident who is the loudest”

“ _Lady_?!”

“Jeez, why are you two shouting? I’m just stating a fact!”

“ _Again_ too many details!”

“Yeah, and you’re making me look bad in front of the kid”

“The _kid_ is having a lot of fun right now, so don’t worry about me”

“What the hell, Nero, I thought you were on my side!”

“Your fault for assuming it”

“You _little…_ ”

“Wait, guys, what are you talking about?”

“Yes, I want to have fun too!!”

“Patty, _don’t_ get closer and keep practicing!”

“Morrison, your daughter is 18 already. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her talking about se-”

“One more word, Dante, and you will fly out of this van in the next curve, I _promise_ ”

“Hey! No killings inside my van!”

“Thank you, love, finally someone who--”

“The police will confiscate her and I don’t want to lose my baby”

“Perfect, not even Nico. Why the hell I’m still in this group?”

“My thoughts exactly”

“Brother, _not_ helping”

“Wasn’t planning to”

Unable to suppress a wide smile when seeing Dante being attacked by practically everyone, Nero turned off the screen on his mobile and stored the device inside his pocket before joining the conversation against the guitarist once again, thinking that no matter how many good offers he could get, he was absolutely convinced that he wouldn’t be leaving _Devil May Cry_ any time soon.

* * *

As expected, the rest they could get after reaching the city around 1 p.m. was pretty limited. The first thing they decided to do was to eat, because even if a meal had been arranged at 3.00 p.m. for the whole group they were already starving after the trip, so for once everyone, Vergil included, effusively agreed with Dante when this one suggested to buy a couple of pizzas (that turned to be half-a-dozen).

After recovering a good part of their energies thanks to their improvised lunch, the group’s next stop was the plaza where the stage had been built, which had been closed to the public for the current time in order to finish preparing everything. Nero wasn’t surprised to see almost a hundred of people already surrounding the plaza, trying to peep inside and also in the van when this one crossed one of the lateral entrances, clearly wanting to catch a glimpse of the group. He also saw a couple of fans trying to sneak just to be stopped by the security guards positioned on the plaza’s entrance.

He smiled to himself, remembering that he did that same thing when being 16 and wasn’t of legal age to be in the bar where _Devil May Cry_ was performing, back then when they weren’t still that famous. Definitely his teenager self would have never imagined that one day he would be travelling together with the group, and much less that he could actually have a chance with its guitarist.

When the van finally stopped next to stage, Nero forced himself to stop day-dreaming and got to work. During the next couple hours everyone focused on transporting the different instruments to the stage to test how they sounded, in order to decide what was the best spot to place them. The arranged lunch was eventually cancelled, since at usual the preparations always took more than anticipated, and also because Nico had to practice a particular moment of her initial performance, due to the fact that the stage that they had in the office wasn’t as big and it had been unfeasible to practice until that moment.

Nero spent the rest of the time checking the flying system and the wings, and he honestly didn’t know how time managed to fly that fast but before he could even notice it was 6.30 p.m. and he was being called to begin to get ready, since in an hour and half the concert was going to begin and the plaza’s doors would open in some minutes so that people could begin to enter.

While feeling nervousness beginning to settle in his body, Nero abandoned the stage climbing down the backstairs in order to join the others. Since the concert was open air, a caravan easily three times bigger than Nico’s one had been parked in an open area behind the stage, as the place where the _Devil May Cry_ members would get ready for their performance.

The caravan had been equipped as a dressing room and when Nero entered, the ruckus of Nico’s van was nothing compared to the chaos reigning inside the place since now, besides the members of the group, several professionals were inside too, in charge of getting them ready with the suits Lucia had provided them. In fact, Nero had barely stepped inside when a woman in her forties suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Nero, right? Please, accompany me. There’s a free spot in the showers area”

“W-Wait a moment, I’m not a performer so I don’t need to--”

“My apologies, but Mr. Morrison has insisted of getting _all_ of you ready”

Still in a rather confused state Nero allowed the woman to unceremoniously push him towards the two showers situated on the far-left end of the van, while expertly avoiding all the people that passed by walking in quite a hurry. The woman instructed him to be ready in 7 minutes (‘nor 5 neither 10  but _7’_ , the woman insisted with a polite but firm tone) so Nero made sure to be out in six with the bathrobe on, jumping startled when the same woman than before was waiting for him there in order to guide him to the next area.

Nero caught a glimpse of Trish and Patty in bathrobes and with their hair wrapped in a towel before he reached a small area with individual dressing tables, and it wasn’t until he sat at the free spot that he noticed that Dante was just in the neighbor chair. He was already wearing the pants of his vampiric suit and the black undershirt that Nero fixed, his loose hair pushed back in a short ponytail.

“Hey there”, the man greeted with an amused smile while a young woman was still applying some makeup on him, “wasn’t expecting seeing you here”

“That makes two of us”

His confession caused the guitarist to chuckle before focusing his attention to Nero’s stylist.

“I bet that some eyeshadow would look great on him”

Nero didn’t know if the woman laughed for Dante’s suggestion or for the way he glared at the guitarist.

“Oh, I was planning to use it”, the woman’s tone turned reassuring when Nero looked at her with a light begging expression, “but don’t worry, it will be really discreet. Just enough to highlight those pretty eyes in case you eventually appear on stage”

Nero was about to insist that he didn’t plan to abandon the _back_ stage when Dante talked again.

“Yep, and I bet that some fake eyelashes would manage to accentuate them even more”

While the woman chuckled again, Nero rolled his eyes with patience.

“His eyelashes are good as they are”, the woman said, settling a hand under Nero’s chin to force him raise his head in order to begin to work, “probably I will give you a little of eyeliner but that’s all. You have a fantastic skin so it won’t be necessary to use anything else”

“Yes, unlike other people I don’t need kilos of makeup to cover my wrinkles”

“Hah! Laugh all you want. But a lot of people would die to have such an impressive body at my age”

“You are right. You are pretty acceptable for being in your fifties”

“Fift--I’m just 44!”

“Oh, wasn’t it 54? My bad then”

Nero regretted not being able to turn his head in order to look at Dante properly but for the way the two stylists began to laugh, he could imagine pretty accurately the guitarist’s face. He dared to threw a side-glance at Dante, and smirked mockingly when seeing this one exhaling a long, resigned sigh before talking again.

“You are asking for trouble, kid. Don’t blame me if you eventually find it”

Nero felt his heart skip a beat because damn if Dante’s warning, spelled in such a ‘threatening’ tone, hadn’t sounded fucking appealing to his ears, and for the way Dante’s younger stylist had blushed slightly, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one in thinking that.

“Oh, don’t worry, old man”, Nero looked at Dante again, adopting a purposely challenging tone, “I’m pretty sure I can handle _everything_ you decide to throw at me”

Probably dropping such an obvious innuendo when they weren’t alone wasn’t very clever, but holy shit, the way Dante briefly bit his lower lip as a grin spread on his face made Nero’s blood travel rapidly south, which wasn’t a good idea because the bathrobe was dangerously thin.

However, the thick tension that was surrounding them was broken when Lady suddenly approached them. The same as Trish, Patty and Nero himself, she was wearing a white robe and even if at any other moment Nero or Dante would have made a joking comment about the face mask and the several curlers she was wearing, they just observed her with a frown when seeing her looking rather worried.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”, the serious tone Dante used let Nero know that he wasn’t the only one concerned by Lady’s expression.

“It’s about Nico”, Lady lowered her tone while the stylists pretended not to pay attention to what she was talking about, “I think there’s something wrong with her: we were just laughing about all this shit they have put on my face when she received a message. She said it was nothing, but she got super pale and then she left the caravan”

“And do you know who sent the message?”

Lady remained silent, hesitating, but when at that moment both stylists decided to excuse themselves to go grab some materials (even if the dressing tables were full of all the imaginable cosmetic products), the keyboards player continue talking, still in a low tone.

“She didn’t say anything but my guess is that it was her father”

“Her father?”, Nero repeated in disbelief, “but that has no sense: they hate each other”

After that one time that Nico mentioned her grandma when Nero managed to fix the caravan, the only other occasion when she had commented something about her family was when Morrison asked them if they wanted tickets for the concert, since the organizers would give them two per member of the group so that they could invite whoever they wanted. Nico had snorted, commenting that she preferred to cut her pinky finger rather than inviting her father to something, and for the way she gulped after saying that it seemed that the bitter comment had escaped her against her will.

“Yes, me too, but trust me: my feminine intuition is telling me it’s something related to him”, Lady continued with a pretty convinced tone, before looking at Nero with her blue and red eyes shining with expectation, “so do you think you could talk to her?”

Nero’s eyes opened more with surprise.

“Yeah, I guess I could, but why don’t _you_ talk to her?”  
Lady laughed nervously while scratching the back of her head, her previous security completely gone.

“I-I don’t think it’s a good idea. Maybe you haven’t noticed but I’m kind of a…big mouth sometimes? Not as much as Dante, of course, but still I’m sure that if I try to cheer her up I will just worsen up the situation and--”

Before Lady could keep giving obvious excuses, Nero stood up from his chair and grabbed one of Lady’s wrist to begin to walk towards the van’s exit, dragging the keyboard’s player behind.

“O-Oi!”, Lady exclaimed while Dante simply observed the scene with a wide smile, “Nero, Nero, wait! Listen, I’ve just had a great idea! Why don’t we ask Trish? She is super good for this kind of things and I’m sure she will exactly know how to talk to Nico!”

“Nope, you are the one in talking to her”

“But why?!”

Nero stopped in his tracks and turned around, causing Lady to jump startled.

“Easy: because if I was in Nico’s place and I had left to be alone, I would bark at anyone who tried to approach me unless that person was important to me”

Lady’s eyes opened wide, and Nero wasn’t sure because of the face mask but he suspected the woman was blushing lightly under it.

“And how do you know that that person is me?”

‘ _Because she likes you too, idio_ t’, Nero thought, but it was probably better not to say it.

“Call it masculine intuition”

Lady chuckled when hearing Nero’s answer. The keyboards bit her lower lip briefly and after exhaling a short sigh she removed the mask from her face in a brusque way, whining a little in pain in the process.

“Okay, here I go”

Lady rapidly disentangled the curlers from her hair as well and with determined steps she began to walk towards the van’s exit. Nero decided that it was probably better to keep to himself that the face-mask removal had left the keyboard’s player’s face as red as a tomato, contenting himself with suppressing a smile while turning around to come back to the makeup area.

He had given a couple of steps when he was about to bump into Dante, who apparently had followed them and was observing him with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Didn’t take you for a wing-man”

Nero shrugged with a smile.

“Me neither, but it was too evident to let it pass”

Nero was about to begin to walk to the makeup area when realizing that Dante wasn’t moving, the guitarist’s eyes still fixed on the van’s exit with barely concealed curiosity.

“Don’t tell me you want to peek”

“What? No!”, Dante said too hurriedly, causing Nero to look at him with a raised eyebrow, “just want to make sure that they are okay like the good friend I am”

“Yeah, right”, Nero snorted, resuming his walk while Dante followed him with reluctance.

“And well, maaaybe I’m a little curious about seeing Lady all nervous and babbling”

“Wow, what a ‘good friend’ you are”

“I know, right? But now seriously: it’s been a while since I’ve seen Lady act like a teenager in love. Normally she is way more direct. With the last woman she dated I think it just took them one week to reach third base”

Nero shrugged again.

“Well, maybe she didn’t like her ex as much as she likes Nico. Maybe she is just being more careful not to screw everything up”

Just a couple of meters remained until reaching the makeup area, but they were enough so that Nero noticed the brief pause that took place after his comment.

“Yeah, I guess that has sense”, Nero looked at Dante with curiosity when the guitarist’s tone sounded a little absent-minded, but almost immediately it changed to joking once again, “do you wanna bet how much it takes them to end together? I say three days at most”

Nero exhaled a laugh, thinking to himself that Nico would kill him if she knew what he was doing.

“I say one week”, Nero stopped briefly and offered his hand to Dante, but just before the guitarist could shake it, he talked again, “what are we betting anyway?”

“A meal”, Dante said without hesitation, “but a proper one. Not like the sandwiches of the last time”

Nero’s heart skipped a beat. Was he reading too much into the whole thing or this looked as if they were talking about a damn first _date_? But well, in the remote case it was, he had to keep calm. He was an adult after all. An adult that had gone to dates before and consequently getting over-enthusiastic about this one would be really childish.

“Pizzas don’t count as a proper meal, you know?”

“Hey, why not? None of you have complained this afternoon!”

“ _That_ was an emergency”, Nero was being a little hypocritical because he ordered pizzas more often than he should, but of course Dante didn’t need to know about that, “but for this bet I expect the level of the first meal you treated us...”

“Oh, come on--”

“...or of the restaurant that Stella chose”

“Nero, are you sure you want to bet an _expensive_ meal?”

“Oh, don’t worry. After all I won’t be the one paying”

Dante snorted when hearing Nero’s confident answer, but he was smiling when shaking Nero’s hand.

“We have a deal then. I really hope you have some savings, kid”

Nero huffed, but before he could come up with another reply, they had reached the makeup area once again, his attention totally drawn to the tall and rather pale lady with long, red hair dressed in violet that was waiting for them there…

...and who, without a word, approached a rather surprised Dante to grab his face between her hands in order to kiss the soul out of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...as always, I will try to update ASAP <3 <3 ;)


	11. The concert (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I post again the links of the clothes Devil May Cry are wearing in the concert: [Nico](https://www.dhresource.com/0x0s/f2-albu-g6-M00-09-03-rBVaSFq5AqqAc--FAAGpISkDpuU463.jpg/gothic-steampunk-women-s-hooded-long-coat.jpg), [Trish](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1p.GzSVXXXXXjXXXXq6xXFXXXm/Punk-rave-Gothic-Lace-Arwen-Victorian-Visual-Kei-Women-Jacket-Y588-M-XL.jpg_640x640.jpg), [Lady](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9a/37/69/9a3769042c2e421e21bae5556a34686a.jpg), [Patty](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1650/9391/products/DW166_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1536871204), [Vergil](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/66/1d/fa/661dfa741397b5c6795305b044f40c7e.jpg), and [Dante](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6d/95/0f/6d950f1fa83844a3c6435fefb1496194.jpg).  
> Also, the ‘demonic suit’ that Vergil and Dante use are obviously based on their respective DT forms ;)

The kiss happened so fast that Nero had barely time to feel the claws of jealousy digging in him, partly because after recovering from his surprise Dante’s reaction was to grab the woman by her arms to push her backwards.

“Wow, stop right there, honey. I don’t think we’re so close anymore”

Dante’s tone when addressing the lady had the usual hint of mockery, but his eyes didn’t accompany it as usual, which probably was the reason why the woman laughed mischievously.

“How cold, my dear”, the woman settled an arm across her torso while straightening the other to settle her hand under chin, observing Dante with a grin, “last time you were unable to keep your hands off me and now not even a kiss?”

“That ‘last time’ was years ago, sweetheart. I’m afraid that passion fades with the years”

“Oh, what a bad boy. You really break my heart”

Okay, Nero took back his words about not being jealous because the image of Dante and that woman together made him feel annoyed as fuck.

And by the way who the hell was she? Because Nero was sure he knew her but he didn’t manage to remember from where.

“Dante, Nero, have you seen Lady and Nico? They should begin to make up by now and--”

You had to be pretty stupid not to realize that, despite her kind nature, Trish had a really strong personality and character, but still when the drums player entered the makeup area, Nero felt a shiver travel down his spine when seeing the way her eyes buried in the newcomer with barely contained anger. If V was the first person he didn’t want to have as an enemy, he had just discovered that Trish was the second, since still with a robe and her blond hair wrapped in a towel she managed to be intimidating.

“What are you doing here, Nevan?”

Nero’s eyes opened more finally in recognition when hearing that name, realizing that that lady who was standing Trish’s glare without barely blinking was no other that the main vocalist of _Temen-ni-gru_ group, a hard-rock metal band which had been rivals with _Devil May Cry_ since practically its starts. He had listened to some of their songs and weren’t bad, but they were too dark to Nero’s liking, so the only things he knew about the group were due to its relation with _Devil May Cry_.

“I was around the city”, Nevan’s eyes fixed on Dante again, seductively, “so I couldn’t let pass the opportunity to say hello”

“Well, I’m afraid _we_ can very much pass without it”, Trish replied with a cutting tone, “so could you leave before I call the security guards?”

“I would do as she says”, Dante intervened, adopting a cautious tone, “you don’t want to get in her bad side”

“Of course. The last thing I want to do is to be a bother”, despite her ‘understanding’ words, Nevan made no attempt of moving, “but before leaving I have a proposal for you”

Trish looked at Nevan as if she wanted to murder her. In fact, Dante seemed to also feel Trish’s dangerous aura because the guitarist was about to settle a hand on the drums player’s shoulder when suddenly Patty rushed into the area.

“Trish, I found them!! They are outside talking but it looked serious and I haven’t wanted to interrup--”, the girl shut up when seeing Nevan and rapidly stepped between Dante and her with her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest, no trace of her usual sweetness in sight, “what is this witch doing here?”

“Nothing. She was already leaving”, Trish said with a cold voice that Nevan ignored once again.

“Alright, why don’t we calm down a little?”, Nevan’s conciliatory tone caused the opposite effect in the women, and Nero suspected that that had exactly been the singer’s intention, “for starters, that animosity you hold against me is completely unfounded”

“ _Unfounded_?”, Trish repeated in a dangerous way that would have made everyone freeze, except apparently Nevan who simply smiled with complacency. God, Nero hadn’t even talked to the woman yet but he hated her already.

“Yes. You insist on blaming me for _that_ incident when there’s nothing that proves I had something to do with it”

“Oh please, of course it was you!”, Patty exclaimed, “it was in _your_ home and that woman was _your_ dancer! So it’s obvious _you_ set everything up to defame Dante!”

“Ssh, Patty, don’t shout”

The girl obeyed Trish’s soft warning but Patty’s words had been enough so that Nero understood what they were talking about.

The incident that Nevan had mentioned had taken place around 5 years ago, when the band was at the peak of their career. _Devil May Cry_ had participated in a pretty important festival together with other rock bands, after which multitudinous party had taken place in Nevan’s manor. A party that, according to the numerous news that came out the following days, eventually developed in some kind of orgy.

Nero remembered that he wasn’t particularly surprised when finding out that Dante had been there among other pretty famous artists. What he wasn’t expecting was that a month or so later, a woman that was in the event announced that she and Dante slept together, had got pregnant and that the guitarist refused to acknowledge it.

Of course, the tabloid press didn’t hesitate in throwing themselves at the announcement like starving wolves, and when the woman in an interview ‘confessed’ that at the time she was a little drunk and she didn’t remember everything what happened, the whole matter obviously worsened even more.

Eventually, it was discovered that Dante _did_ sleep with the woman but this one admitted that she had lied, that she had never been pregnant to begin with, and that someone had paid her to say all that. She apologized profusely but the harm was done, so even if most part of _Devil May Cry_ fans (Nero included) had believed in the guitarist’s innocence when the first fake news came to light, some time had to pass so that the band’s name was cleaned up.

Nero felt his blood boiling in anger when seeing Nevan’s smile widening. He looked at Dante, wondering what the guitarist’s reaction was, and when seeing this one still looking calm but with an undeniably tension surrounding his body he decided it was enough: that day was being pretty awesome to that point, and promised to be even better after the concert, and like hell if that bitch was going to ruin it.

“As I’ve said, those are baseless arguments”, Nevan insisted with an irritating mawkish tone, “so do you think we could let that unfortunate misunderstanding behind and move on? I’m sure you have heard about the festival taking place at the end of the year. Some groups are planning to collaborate during the performance and I’m sure that if we work together it could be rather benefi--”

“Sorry, lady, but we aren’t interested in parasites”

Nero’s sudden intervention didn’t just surprise Nevan, who finally fixed her eyes on him as if noticing Nero for the first time, but also the others, who looked at him in disbelief.

“Parasites?”, Nevan repeated in a confused tone.

“Yeah, you know those bugs that stuck on other animals to exploit them because they can’t do much on their own?”

Nevan blinked once slowly, talking next with a soft tone that didn’t manage to suppress entirely her annoyance, which made Nero note himself a win.

“Boy, are you perhaps insinuating that our group can’t stand on its own?”

“No, I’m not insinuating it. I’m saying it”, Nero allowed himself to use one of V’s sentences before continuing, “after all the sales of _Temen-ni-gru_ during the last two years have been pretty bad while _Devil May Cry_ ’s ones haven’t stopped growing, so I don’t think there’s any benefit in associating with you”

It was evident that Nevan wasn’t used to be addressed in such a blunt way because her momentary loss of words allowed Nero to talk again, using a fake cheery tone that had nothing to envy Dante’s usual one.

“So, I don’t want to be a jerk but you should leave. Maybe you have forgotten how this works since it’s been almost a year since your group gave a proper concert but there’s a lot of things we still have to do and not much time to waste, so…”, Nero pointed with his thumb behind him in a brusque gesture that contrasted with his obliging smile, “...the exit is right there. Don’t think we need to show you where, right?”

After Nero talked no one said anything for the last seconds, until Nevan exhaled a long sigh before fixing her eyes on Nero’s one with a strained smile that betrayed her irritation.

“What’s your name, boy?”

“Nero”, he didn’t avert his eyes from hers at any moment, which made Nevan chuckle to herself darkly before looking at the others.

“You have recruited a good one. Make sure not to lose it”

The light threat on the last sentence didn’t go unnoticed by Nero but of course he didn’t flinch, observing the woman until this one abandoned the room after blowing a kiss towards the rest of the group. However, the provoking gesture was pretty useless because Dante, Trish and Patty’s attention was still focused on Nero.

“What?”, he snapped after a moment, feeling a little uncomfortable to be looked at with such insistency.

Dante was the one who reacted first, closing his half-opened mouth to gulp before talking with an incredulous, impressed tone.

“Damn, kid, that was _hot_ ”

Nero was pretty sure that this time the blush reached his cheeks when hearing Dante’s completely sincere tone, but he couldn’t reply anything since at that moment Patty and Trish began to talk at the same time.

“Oh my god, Dante is right!! you were so cool ❤!!”

“Thank you, Nero. _Thank you._ One more minute and I would have strangled her”

“GUYS”, at that moment Lady stomped in the room in a rather altered state, followed by a pretty confused Nico, “guys guys guys, you won’t _believe_ who I’ve just seen!!”

“Yes, hon, we know”

“Yeees. Nevan was here and was as horrible as always but Nero put her in her place~!”

“Daaaamn, you should have warned me!! I would have kicked her ass too!”

“Well done, bro! Though I don’t know who you are talking about...”

No one had time to explain anything to Nico because at that moment they heard someone clearing his throat loudly and when turning around they found Vergil there, already dressed but with his hair still wet from the shower, which caused some bangs to fall on his forehead making his obvious resemblance with his twin even more evident.

It was then when Nero and the rest noticed that all the professionals, in the absence of something to do because practically the entire group was gathered in the makeup area, were looking in their direction with barely suppressed curiosity, which caused Trish to gasp and apologize to them while managing to drag all the ladies with her to continue getting ready.

The bassist followed the women with his eyes, as if making sure they were going where they had to, and after rolling his eyes he looked back at Nero while Dante sat back on the chair once the stylists returned.

Nero wasn’t expecting it when Vergil nodded briefly towards him, in a gesture that he understood as approving. Maybe somehow Vergil had listened to him talking to Nevan? It was pretty impossible because the bassist theoretically was far at the moment but...it was Vergil, so he managing to somehow know everything entered the realms of possibility.

* * *

They didn’t have more unexpected interruptions so, against all odds, they left the caravan at 7.45, exactly 15 minutes before the concert had to start. Since it was October 31 it was pretty cold outside, and the open-neck, black silky t-shirt that Nero had been given to wear god-knew-why was rather light for the weather. At least, he was pretty sure that he would stop being cold when beginning to work because he doubted to have much time to stay still.

“Hey, Dante, what are you doing?”, Lady exclaimed when the guitarist turned around to return to the caravan when they had barely walked a couple of meters, reappearing some moments later with a clothing that Nero recognized as the red leather jacket the guitarist was wearing before changing.

“Making sure that the kid doesn’t freeze to death”, he replied with a smile, placing his own jacket on Nero’s shoulder without waiting for this one’s answer.

“Aww~”, Patty exhaled, placing a hand against her chest before Trish could subtly elbow her, causing the blond girl to look at her with confusion, “what’s wrong, Trish? Don’t you think it’s cute?”

Nero missed the way Lady muffled a laugh and how Trish exhaled a patient sigh, being more focused on praying that the sudden heat that had settled in his lower stomach didn’t travel to other places, because the jacket smelled like Dante and damn if that wasn’t arous- _distracting_.

“It suits you”, Dante commented, causing Nero to snort softly.

“Sorry, but I prefer a less flashy style”

“Oh, yes, like that super discreet red t-shirt you wore last week”

“I just wore it _once_ and I didn’t even choose it, so it doesn’t count!”

Nero and Dante’s banter continued until reaching the stage, moment in which they were forced to stop talking because some people managed to pinpoint them through the fenced area situated on either side of the concert, causing a deafening generalized shout of enthusiasm spread at the other side. Of course he had been among that hysterical crowd a lot of times, but it felt way different to be at the other side, and for the way Nico gulped loudly while the others began to climb up the stairs leading to the backstage looking completely at ease with the ruckus, it seemed that the vocalist was thinking the same than him. They were newbies in the famous department after all.

“Hey”, he said when they were in the backstage, waiting for the others to verify a last time that all the instruments were ready, “you okay?”

Nico nodded rapidly.

“Yeah. A lil scared, not gonna lie, but I’m fine”, Nico offered Nero a smile that, for once, it was a little shy, “thanks by the way. For sending Lady”  
Nero made a dismissive gesture with his hand before looking at the woman with curiosity.

“Can I ask what happened?”

Nico nodded again, talking next with a bitter tone

“Yeah. My stupid dad sent me a picture of the stage”

Nero frowned.

“So he is here?”

“Yep. Guess he’s hoping to see me fail, so that he can tell me I was a stupid girl when choosing music instead of following his steps”, Nico exhaled an annoyed sigh, “and I know I did the right thing, and like hell if I regret ‘not meeting his expectations’, but still I couldn’t help to worry about doing something ridiculous and proving him right”

Nero gritted his teeth. He was about to tell a couple of things about Nico’s father when the woman continued, her tone cheerier.

“But Lady told me that all that was bullshit. And that yeah, he is my father and sadly I can’t change that, but _I_ can choose to stop worrying about what he thinks and focus on having one hell of a night”

Nero returned the smile.

“She is right. And also, don’t worry: if you go blank while singing, I will go out there to sing two verses. You’ll see how people will never complain about your voice ever again”

Nico burst out laughing.

“Thanks, dude”, she exhaled a soft sigh after calming down, “but seriously, in this group there’s a clear lack of good parenting. Did you know that Lady’s father was a total asshole too?”

“Really?”

“Yep, I didn’t know but apparently her dad was even worse than mine, always trying to impose his beliefs and scary religion on her”, Nico smiled, “guess who was the one who helped her leave all that behind”

“Trish?”, Nero guessed, causing Nico to shake softly her head before lowering her tone.

“Dante”, Nico’s smile widened when Nero opened more his eyes, “apparently he also helped Trish when her stupid boss tried to fire her, after she kicked him when this one groped her ass, and even Vergil when some matter turned fishy in his old work, although Lady didn’t know much about that story. But in summary yep: your almost boyfriend is a hero without cape”

“Hey, you still there?”, of course, Dante had to choose the moment in which Nero was having a revelation of why he liked the guitarist so much in order to appear in front of them, “damn, hope you don’t call me slow from now o--”

Dante stopped mid-sentence frowning, probably confused for the way Nico and specially Nero were looking at him.

“Uhm...guys? You okay?”

Nico and Nero nodded at the same time.

“Yeah”, the last said with a casual tone, “talking about how cool you are”

Dante half-closed his eyes before snorting, clearly thinking Nero was joking.

“Good try”, he clapped his hands once and shook his head towards the stage with a smirk, “come on. The show is about to start”

Nero exhaled a soft sigh at the exact moment in which Nico palmed his back.

“I think you will have to be even more obvious”, she teased in a low tone, causing Nero to roll his eyes before finally beginning to help Nico wear the harnesses that would allow her to ‘fly’ on the stage.

It took Nero his good ten minutes to check the woman was well secured, the people’s enthusiastic shouts becoming more and more frequent the closest they were to the start of the concert. Nero even heard at some point a super loud ‘ _Vergil, marry me_!’ that caused the bassist to rub his temple while the others chuckled.

Predictably, the concert didn’t begin at 8 o’clock, and when five minutes had passed and the technicians were still verifying that the micros and spotlights worked, the shouts began to get more impatient. Nero, who was already situated on the left side of the backstage to control Nico’s flying, had a perfect view of the whole stage, which allowed him to see Vergil clicking his tongue loudly in front of the microphone. The sound reverberated in the place causing some fangirling shouts win over the impatient ones, and Nero thought that some people was clearly worse than him for being able to recognize _that_ sound.

After another five minutes, everything was finally ready:

A five meters mobile scaffold had been built on the middle of the stage. It was covered in a black cloth with the initials of the group written in red on the front of it. On its right-side Trish was sitting in front of the drums already, while Lady was on the keyboards on its left. Dante was in diagonal to Trish, some steps ahead, while Vergil was in a similar position on Lady’s side. The spot in the middle that Nico would occupy was for now empty, while Patty was situated on the far-right side of the stage, already in position with the violin.

“Nico, babe, you ready?”

Even if Nico was the one addressed by Lady, Nero felt himself getting nervous too when the vocalist did a thumb up gesture towards Lady before covering her head with the hood she was wearing. She then grabbed the micro one of the technicians handled to her and when Nero realized her hand was trembling a little, he called for her.

“Hey”, when the woman looked at him, he offered his fisted hand to her, “have fun”

Nico exhaled a chuckle and whispered a soft ‘ _Hell yeah_ ’ while bro fisting Nero. This one focused again on the stage when Nico stepped on it remaining in the back, managing to catch a glimpse of Dante winking at him from the distance. Nero returned the greeting wearing his index and middle finger to his forehead in a military gesture and after exhaling a deep breath he got a good hold of the flying system controls.

Now, for real, the show was about to start.

* * *

When the curtains of the stage opened, there wasn’t a single spotlight illuminating the place, which caused the audience’s shouts to turn into confused murmurs since, usually, the way of _Devil May Cry_ to begin their concerts was everything but calm. Still with the lights off, the sound of a music box being [winded up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_3EQYzUV4) invaded the plaza, the delicate sound being enough to make the people in the plaza grow silent.

Still with the music box in the background, the keyboards and the drums began to softly play while a single spotlight gradually began to illuminate Nico’s hooded figure on the back, at the same time that the woman began to sing.

_I pirouette in the dark_

_I see the stars through me_

 

With the last word Patty began to play the violin, causing the people to begin murmur in surprise since Patty’s presence in the concert hadn’t been announced.

 

_Tired mechanical heart_

_Beats til the song disappears_

 

After some seconds of Patty playing the violin, the intensity of the music increased, moment in which Nico and Patty began to walk towards the center of the stage while the first continued singing.

 

_Somebody shine a light_

_I'm frozen by the fear in me_

_Somebody make me feel alive_

_And shatter me_

_So cut me from the line_

_Dizzy, spinning endlessly_

_Somebody make me feel alive_

_And shatter me!_

When Nico finished the last verse, Dante and Vergil finally joined the ladies and began to play, even if the lights kept being exclusively focused on the younger women, leaving the older members of the band in the shadows.

As usual, the poetry written by V had a confusing component that Nero didn’t manage to understand, but he just knew that the way Nico powerfully sang those ‘ _Shatter me_ ’ accompanied by the group’s usual awesome music made goosebumps travel by all his body, and he betted that the audience was feeling the same for the way they were listening to the performance in almost complete silence.

 

_If only the clockworks could speak_

_I wouldn't be so alone_

 

The intensity of the music decreased, Lady and Trish being the only ones in accompanying Patty and Nico like before.

 

_We burn every magnet and spring_

_And spiral into the unknown_

 

In the last two verses Lady joined Nico in the singing, causing a new wave of applauses since people obviously recognized the keyboards player’s voice. This time when Nico sang the chorus the audience got more into it, and when the ending of it was getting close Nero couldn’t help to tense a little, since _that_ part was finally coming.

When the twins joined Trish, Lady and Patty again in the instrumental part, Nico began to slowly walk towards the scaffold, and when the next new verses began, Nico began to sing while climbing up the circular metallic stairs that had been built around the structure.

 

_If I break the glass, then I'll have to fly_

_There's no one to catch me if I take a dive_

_I'm scared of changing, the days stay the same_

_The world is spinning but only in gray_

 

Nico was midway up the stairs when repeating verses, this time accompanied by Lady once again. By when Nico spelled the last word she was already at the top of the scaffold, moment in which a new instrumental part began with the sound of the music box prevailing over the music.

It was at that moment when Nico slowly removed the hood that she was still wearing, and when Patty’s violin re-emerged again, Nico made a small jump towards the void.

Nero couldn’t blame the people when they let out surprised, nervous gasps because despite Nico and him had been practicing the ‘fly’ for a good whole hour that day, he nevertheless was kind of nervous while controlling the vocalist’s movement. However, when Nico was perfectly suspended in the air, he could finally relax a little, while lowering the woman slowly and safely towards the stage.

While being lowered down, Nico sang for the last time the song chorus while the lights of the stage finally illuminated the entire group, which caused a new roaring clamor to be heard in all the plaza.

 

_Somebody make me feel alive_

_And shatter me!_

 

The people’s shouts didn’t stop when Nico finished the song, moment in which Patty, who had already left her violin to an assistant in the backstage, approached her to enclose an arm around her neck while sustaining with her other hand a micro.

“And this AMAZING singer, ladies and gentleman, is Nicoletta Goldstain, the new vocalist of _Devil May Cry_. Please, welcome her with a gigantic ovation!!”

When Patty said that while raising her arm towards the air, a wave of new applauses invaded the plaza. After that, Patty said some more words to the audience, thanking them for all the support during her years with the group, and then she proceeded to abandon the stage, not without going to all the members of the band one by one to say them goodbye. Nero had to suppress a laugh when Vergil awkwardly patted the girl’s back when this one hugged him effusively and after blowing several kisses towards the crowd Patty finally joined Nero in the backstage. When she was close, he realized that the girl’s face was pretty red even if she had spent less than 10 minutes in the stage, and also that her eyes were suspiciously bright.

“I’m fine”, the girl said with a reassuring tone when seeing Nero opening his mouth, “just got emotional for doing my last official performance”

Nero smiled back while the girl removed a couple of tears from her eyes before focusing her attention on the stage. Lady and Trish had abandoned their spots to join Nico in the front and were talking to the public, explaining why it had taken them so much to introduce Nico to them. Vergil hadn’t moved, his serious expression accentuated by the vampiric make-up he was wearing, and Dante’s attention seemed to be focused on the backstage, towards the place where Patty had disappeared to. Eventually the guitarist’s eyes met Nero’s and this one saw him silently spell Patty’s name.

“Dante is looking for you”, Nero muttered, causing the girl to get closer to Nero since she was in a blind spot. When finally seeing her, Dante mouthed a short sentence that looked like ‘ _You okay?_ ’, and when Patty’s answer was to nod effusively while offering a thumb up gesture towards him, the guitarist’s seemed to relax again before winking at her with a smile.

“He is so cute”, Patty whispered with an affectionate tone, and even if Nero didn’t agree aloud, he internally thought that it was curious how the guitarist could pass from goofy, to incredibly hot and also to adorable.

Once Trish and Lady finished with the explanations, Dante and Vergil approached the audience to join in the thanks the group was giving for being there that night. As it was expected, Dante had barely grabbed the microphone to say a simple ‘ _Hi there_ ’ when a thunderous chorus of fangirling shouts invaded the place, and this time Nero wasn’t that surprised when the people got even more hysterical when Dante passed the micro to his brother and Vergil said an austere ‘ _Good night_ ’, since he had gotten more or less used by then to the effect that Vergil’s sulking personality seemed to provoke in others.

After talking to the fans for some more minutes and wish them a really ‘Devil Halloween’, the group came back to their seats. The first hour of concert passed relatively quickly and smoothly, and Nero found himself refraining himself from singing loudly the group’s songs as he used to do when going to its concerts, since he couldn’t allow himself to relax completely in case something suddenly failed. However, despite his lack of freedom to destroy the group’s songs with his not-very-melodious voice, the possibility of watching the group perform from so close clearly made up for it. Because yeah, he had seen them practice in the recording studio, but that was nothing compared to see them in their element.

Also, since it was Halloween night, the group had decided to include in their repertory a couple of songs that they hadn’t played for quite a while but that suited the topic rather well, and that caused Nero to exhale a loud, astonished curse that made Patty laugh next to him. With the exception of Nico’s debut song and the last theme the group had released, Nero hadn’t wanted to know the songs the group were going to play, and consequently when the characteristic [_Devil Never Cry_](https://youtu.be/GZUN89RaP60?t=60) song began to sound and _Dante_ began to sing, Nero felt a shiver travel by all his body because the guitarist snarling those very first verses had always provoked that effect (and sometimes another more problematic) on him, no matter how disturbing the lyrics actually were. People’s reaction when Vergil sang the second part of the song with a way more calmed though still powerful voice than his twin was as loud as expected, although it was nothing compared to the reaction the group obtained when the twins sang together until Nico finally intervened when the rhythm of the song was [reduced](https://youtu.be/GZUN89RaP60?t=189).

After a couple of more also cool songs, the audience (Nero included) got excited for second time when listening to the familiar, initial instrumental part of the [_Shall Never Surrender_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H1RToc0WgY) song. It was Vergil the one who began to sing, slowly beginning to walk while approaching the center of the stage, since Nico had moved a little to the side because she wouldn’t join the song until later. After the new brief instrumental part, Dante was the one singing while slowly approaching his brother, and the fact that he spelled the last verse (‘ _I’ll succeed as you breathe your very last breath_ ’) really close to his brother’s face caused loud, high-pitched fangirling cries to raise over the general shouts because, apparently, pairing the twins together was something people loved to do.

The twins separated once again (to the fans’ disappointment) and took turns in saying the next verses before singing together the last ‘ _I make the angel scream and the devil cry_ ’. After that, they both recovered their seats while Nico came back to the center while singing the more [calmed verses](https://youtu.be/0H1RToc0WgY?t=163), accompanied by Lady in the last ones.

Nico sang the following [song ](https://youtu.be/L1FLpyYVC48?t=18)alone, and her performance was really well received because the song was written when Lucia was the vocalist and although Patty had sang it sometimes, it had to be slightly adjusted because the girl was unable to reach the higher notes. With Nico however they dared to go with the initial version, which resulted to be a success.

“Oh my god, she is _so_ good”, Patty whispered next to Nero while covering her mouth with her hand, “I always ended out of breath but look at her!”

The fact that Patty was talking with an honest, admired tone that held zero jealousy made Nero smile, wondering that he kind of understood Morrison when he was overprotective with Patty: that girl was really adorable and had to be protected at all cost.

After some more songs, Nero’s resting time was over because, first, he was warned by a technician that the spotlight illuminating Trish was tilting when apparently everything was fine. He rapidly climbed up the ladder leading to the upper metallic structure and with a couple of more people he worked all the fast he could because playing with a tilting light over you was incredibly annoying.

He had barely fixed Trish’s one when Vergil’s one began to fail, since there seemed to be a completely illogical connection between them. It took Nero a song and half to find the reason for the problem, and by when he finally stepped on the ground again the [final song](https://youtu.be/-WpnPSChVRQ?t=23) had started sounding already, which meant that in less than three minutes he had to be ready to help Dante with the change of the costume and the adjustment of the wings...

...which meant, that he was in the wrong side of the stage at the moment because he was in the opposite side where Dante was.

“Shit”, he couldn’t help to let out, knowing that he would have very little margin to circle the not precisely small stage.

Patty noticed his stressed state because she softly grabbed his arm.

“Look, the stage is completely dark now: you can cross to the other side and no one will see you”

“You sure?”, Nero asked with hesitation, the way the girl nodded with confidence making him relax a little.

“Yes: I did it a lot of times when I was a teenager and helped them in their concerts. As long as you stay out of the spotlights no one will see you. They are focused on the others after all”

Nero nodded and without wasting more precious seconds he began to walk while crouching all the fast he could to cross to the other side. He reached it when Nico was [finishing singing](https://youtu.be/-WpnPSChVRQ?t=186) the ‘ _Nothing can save you and there’s no way out_ ’, and he had barely pinpointed the technicians getting the demonic costume ready when Dante left the stage. The guitarist left his guitar with one of the technicians and approached Nero, frowning lightly when seeing this one’s breathless state.

“Are you okay, kid?”

Nero nodded rapidly while carefully reaching for the demonic costume.

“Yeah, just found out how stressing this job can be”

He tried not to ogle at the guitarist too much while this one removed his jacket and black undershirt, exposing his upper, defined body covered in a thin layer of sweat. His hair was also in an even more disheveled state than usual and Nero had to push away the thoughts of Dante looking like that but in another slightly different scenario. He helped the guitarist to wear the upper part of the suit, which was made to emulate demonic skin, and he was about to reach for the wings, whose mechanism had already been attached to the harnesses of the flying system, when Dante suddenly spoke.

“Kid, you’re not gonna believe this”

Nero frowned before his eyes opened in horror when realizing that the front zipper of the demonic suit was _stuck_.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me”, Nero snapped, leaving the mechanism with the technicians to get a hold of Dante’s jacket, “shit, what the hell happens with you and zippers?”

“I’d like to know it as well”, Dante said with a resigned tone while Nero cursed.

Nico was singing again, which meant that they had less than two minutes until the twins had to be suspended in the air. Damn, that was his fault for thinking that everything was going smoothly: it had been a fucking death flag.

“Look, Nero, leave it”, Dante commented when after some seconds Nero was still struggling with the zipper, who refused to move from the top of the guitarist’s trousers, “I will simply wear the black undershirt to cover my chest. It’s not such a big issu--”

Dante was still talking when still cursing Nero dropped on his knees in front of the guitarist. Without offering any kind of explanation to anyone, Nero leaned one hand on Dante’s hip and after grabbing the bottom of the clothing with the other he began to lick around the zipper, since in the absence of lubricant and without having time to run towards the caravan in search for lotion that could fulfill that role, the last option was to use saliva to see if that did the trick. And yeah, he knew he had to look like an utter idiot at the moment but after all the work they had invested on the performance, like hell if Dante wasn’t going to wear his demonic suit properly.

Since his efforts were exclusively devoted to make the fucking piece of metal work, he missed the dumbfounded expression of the technicians and the way Dante held his breath before gulping subtly, his gaze completely focused on Nero while this one kept with his peculiar fixing technique.

And, as little conventional as it was, it just took Nero some seconds and a single try to exhale a triumphant curse when the zipper slid back up easily.

“Fixed!”, he announced, standing up again. He used his forearm to rapidly dry the wet zipper before reaching for the wings, and it wasn’t until Dante was wearing them and he was about to adjust the harnesses across the guitarist’s chest when he noticed the way Dante was looking at him.

Nero _did_ fully understand then the expression of feeling his heart in his throat, because Dante’s clear, blue eyes were shining in a way that, until then, he had just seen in certain kind of dreams, and not precisely the innocent ones.

He was lost for a moment, initially not understanding what had made the guitarist show that kind of expression, and it took him some embarrassingly long five seconds to finally guess what could have passed through Dante’s head to look like that.

Nero suppressed a gulp, continuing adjusting the harnesses in silence with his eyes still locked in Dante’s ones. A mere minute remained until Dante had to be up there, and consequently it wasn’t clever to say anything that could worsen the obvious tension that existed between them. Not clever at all.

But well, Nero had never been too clever to begin with.

“You look tense, Dante”, he casually said with a fake concerned tone, “you worried about something?”

Fuck, he was really an idiot, but damn if it didn’t feel right the way Dante’s eyes opened briefly before showing a small smirk.

“No. Just didn’t expect you were that skilled with your mouth”

Nero had seen that coming, but still the hint of seduction present in the guitarist’s next sentence made his heart skip a beat and his ears to end a little red.

“What can I say?”, he eventually replied with a decently confident smile, “I’m a man with multiple talents”

Not still at Dante’s level but close for the way this one’s eyes glinted, and now for real the flirting had to stop because they just had 40 seconds to leave everything ready.

While the technicians rapidly verified the wings and the flying system worked adequately, Nero helped Dante wear the helmet that covered his entire face with the exception of his mouth, and that made him look like a rather credible demon.

“Done”, Nero announced when 20 seconds remained, before signaling with his head towards the stage while looking at Dante, “you ready, old man?”

Dante snorted softly, before speaking with his usual overconfidence.

“I was born ready”

Nero was still thanking all the possible gods above when Dante was lifted up in the air together with Vergil in the other side, both [in time](https://youtu.be/-WpnPSChVRQ?t=302). Since he had to be extra focused on controlling Dante’s movement while coordinating with the technician in charge of Vergil’s one at the other side, the only reason why Nero didn’t miss the people’s reaction when seeing the brothers flying was because the surprised shouts they let out were probably the loudest of the entire night.

Dante and Vergil kept flying for almost a minute while playing the guitar and bass respectively, their wings moving perfectly during all the process, and when Nico began to sing the chorus of the song for the last time, they managed to land on the stage back to back and behind Nico just when she was saying the final ‘ _Pull my driver trigger_ ’, moment in which Nero finally relaxed and let out a triumphant ‘ _YES_ ’ while the other technicians applauded with relief and pride, while the crowd got absolutely crazy in the plaza.

Nero was still celebrating with the people of the backstage the concert success shaking hands and interchanging pats in the back when he realized that the entire _Devil May Cry_ group had approached the front of the stage to say goodbye to the fans. He realized that Patty was there, making him gestures so that he joined them, which caused Nero to furiously shake his head negatively.

He frowned when seeing the girl talk to Dante, who together with Vergil had removed his helmet and the harnesses with the wings to move more comfortably, and got pale when Dante’s attention shifted toward him just before beginning to walk towards his direction with determined steps. Nero tried to retreat even more inside the backstage, but to his stupor the technicians had formed a barrier, blocking his escape route.

Fuck, so that had been planned for the start. For that reason Morrison had insisted on getting him ready too. That sly old man...

“Thanks guys”, Dante said when he reached Nero, grabbing this one’s arm next, “and now stop being shy, Mr. Handyman. You are part of the group too”

“Wait, Dante, please. Dante. Damn, _Dante!_ ”

Nero uselessly fought to get himself free from the surprisingly strong grip, but he momentarily ceased in his struggle when Dante chuckled before leaning over to whisper the next sentence in his ear, stopping when they were still out of the audience sight.

“Not that I mind you calling my name, Nero, but save some of that for later”

Nero was pretty sure his brain short-circuited at that moment.

In fact, he didn’t know how his jaw didn’t fall slack when hearing Dante’s words, because besides the usual joking component they also carried a seductive tinge that made Nero’s stomach clench. And also, the way Dante playfully nudged his nose against the shell of his ear didn’t help either.

He stared at Dante in disbelief when this one finally separated, not believing yet what the guitarist was suggesting, and his face had to be a fucking poem because when Dante talked again his tone was more serious, and slightly hesitating.

“If you are down for it, of course”

That was, without a doubt, the moment in which Nero had to fight the most against the impulse of crashing his lips with the guitarist’s right there and then, but definitely he didn’t want that his first kiss with Dante was short and hurried _and with half-of-a-dozen of technicians staring_ , since especially that last part was kind of a turn off. So, for the time being he contented himself with slowly smiling and leaning over to be the one in whispering the next sentence in Dante’s ear, with all the cockiness he could gather and without bothering to hide the anticipation in his tone.

“You can bet I am”

The relieved, hungry smile Dante offered him did things to Nero’s body, and the only thing he could think while finally letting Dante guide him to the front of the stage was that he had to fucking thank V for that morning’s advice.

* * *

Nero wasn’t honestly expecting that people applauded so damn much when _Devil May Cry_ officially introduced him as the ‘Ninja of the group’: working in the shadows to guarantee the group’s success (Lady’s words, not his). He told himself that such behavior was product of the people’s euphoria after having attended to such an amazing concert, and that in that state they would probably applaud to a frog that passed by, so he didn’t give it any importance and simply tried to look as less idiot as possible while standing there without knowing where to look.

By when they abandoned the stage it was already past 11 p.m., since the audience asked for an encore and the group agreed on playing the last single again, although this time without the flying. When Nero climbed down the stairs of the backstage with a really hyperactive, super happy Nico enclosing an arm around his neck, Morrison was already waiting for them there, talking to a tall woman with rather short, brown hair and big glasses that Nero didn’t recognize, but that seemed to know the old man rather well for the familiarity they were talking to each other.

Lady, Trish and Patty, who were behind Nero and Nico, also greeted the woman while smiling, causing her to bow a little her head towards them in a Japanese way. Meanwhile, the twins were talking/arguing in the last line of the group as usual. Both had removed the upper part of the suit, Dante ending shirtless as usual despite the night was pretty cold while Vergil remained in a sleeveless, black t-shirt.

“...and for all that, it’s obvious I flied better than you”, Dante was telling Vergil with a confident tone that made Vergil click his tongue.

“You can believe that if that makes you happy, Dante. But when we check the video footage you will see that your flying style is clearly inferior to mine and--”

Nero turned his head back to look at Vergil with a confused frown when this one suddenly interrupted his arrogant argument, his grey eyes opening a little more while staring at the woman next to Morrison.

There wasn’t any other substantial change in the bassist’s reaction with the exception of a really subtle gulp, and for that reason Nero couldn’t prevent his mouth from hanging open when witnessing how, in a couple of steps, Vergil reached the woman, enclosed his arms around her waist and kissed her in a fierce way that Nero would have never expected from the usual cool-headed bassist.

“That’s Saya”, Dante whispered behind Nero while putting on the shirt Trish handled him, which was a rather unnecessary explanation because Nero doubted that Vergil was making out _like that_ with a random person.

“Theoretically she couldn’t come to the concert”, Trish explained while Nero forced himself to stop staring at the passionate reunited pair, “but it seems that she was able to join us-- _him_ at the end”

At that moment Vergil and Saya finally separated, and maybe it was Nero’s imagination but they didn’t seem to interchange a single word before Vergil settled an arm around her waist, beginning to walk towards the gigantic caravan without saying anything else to the rest, with the clear intention to leave.

“Have fun, bro!”

Trish hit Dante on his chest with the back of her hand reproachfully when the guitarist playfully shouted that, while Lady and Patty giggled, and obviously no one was surprised when Vergil simply continued walking with his girlfriend, clearly ignoring his brother.

“Well, I guess that we don’t have to wait for them to go the hotel”, Morrison said with amusement before beginning to walk towards the place where Nico’s caravan was parked, side to side with his daughter while the rest followed them in group.

Nero realized relieved that Vergil leaving with Saya meant that now he and Dante would be alone in the hotel room, so at least they wouldn’t need to invest time in convincing Vergil to leave or in searching for another room in case the bassist had refused to cooperate.

“Well well…”, at that moment Lady appeared at the other side of Nico to enclose an arm around the woman’s arm, cutting Nero’s fantasies about what could happen that night in the hotel, “it seems that you kicked those nerves in the ass. Well done, babe”

Nico exhaled a chuckle before nodding.

“Yeah, it was super funny”, the vocalist bit her bottom lip for a moment and then, out of the blue, she leaned towards Lady to deposit a quick kiss on her cheek, causing the keyboards player’s eyes to open funnily wide while blushing, “thanks”

After recovering from her stupor a wide smile passed to adorn Lady’s face, and that was the moment in which Nero subtly took a couple of steps backwards to join Dante and Trish just at the same time that the drums player excused herself in order to talk to Morrison about ‘some urgent stuff’, leaving the guitarist and him alone on the last line.

“Hey, Nero”

This one’s heart skipped a beat when Dante casually enclosed his arms around his shoulders. Shit, he better got a hold of himself or that night would be embarrassingly short for him.

“Yeah?”, he asked, eyes diverting from Dante’s eyes to his mouth when the guitarist began to approach his face to him.

“Are you sure…”, Nero gulped when Dante’s nose brushed his, “...that you don’t want to change your bet? Because at this rate you will _seriously_ have to invite me to dinner, kid, and--”

Nero exhaled a groan and pushed Dante away with force, causing the guitarist to chuckle with amusement.

“Hey, come on! I’m just keeping a watchful eye on your wallet”, Dante exclaimed with a fake offended tone, “you are an ungrateful _brat_ ”

Nero was about to be even brattier by showing Dante his middle finger for having put him in tension like that when his mobile began to sound. He extracted it from his pocket as a resigned smile played at his lips when seeing the name on the screen.

“V?”, Dante guessed with a smile, causing Nero to chuckle.

“Yeah, he surely calls to laugh at me for my TV appearance”

Nero picked up the call, beginning to talk before V could even begin.

“I know, V. I look like an idiot on the TV. You don’t need to tell me that”

Instead of the high-and-mighty reply he was expecting, V simply talked after a small pause.

“ _I guess the concert is over and you are free to talk?_ ”

The smile in Nero’s face vanished when noticing the urgency in V’s voice even if this one had put special care to sound calm.

“Yeah, it finished ten minutes ago”, Nero didn’t realize the rest had stopped together with him, neither the way Dante was looking at him with a mix of curiosity and concern, “why? Is something wrong?”

After a small pause, V talked again in a studied serene tone that just served to make Nero feel even more nervous.

“ _The police just called me_ ”, Nero didn’t have time to even get surprised, since V’s next words made him freeze in place, “ _Kyrie is in the hospital_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, three things: 
> 
> First, please don’t hate me ^^U
> 
> Second, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that NO ONE dies in this story so Kyrie will be definitely alright. Also, the drama that appears in my stories are always pretty light, so nothing extreme has happened to her, rest easy <3
> 
> Third, I swear the slow burn is killing even me: theoretically this story was going to be around 10 chapters with Dante and Nero having some sexy time together, and here I am on chapter 11 and they haven’t even kissed -.- _But_ I promise that I know where this story is going, that they will kiss _and_ will definitely do more than kissing, and that it will be soon <3 
> 
> At least I hope the wait for the concert was worth it, and you have enjoyed the chapter despite that cliffhanger ^^U  
> As always, I will update ASAP <3 <3 <3


	12. Who said 3 a.m. decisions were bad?

After hearing V, it took Nero a moment to be able to form a coherent word.

“What?”, it was in those moments during which Nero wished to have the poet’s capacity to remain calm, instead of beginning to blurt out questions as he did next, “but why-- how--shit, what the hell happened?”

By then the entire group had stopped completely to gradually circle him, thing that Nero didn’t notice because he could only pay attention to what V said next.

“ _Apparently some inebriated people decided it was a great Halloween plan to set Kyrie’s shelter on fire”_

Anger and fear immediately passed to accompany the nervousness Nero was feeling.

“What the _fuck--_ ”

“ _Fortunately the personal heard the alarm in time before the fire spread_ ” _,_ for the background sound that appeared at the other side of the line he deduced that V had just abandoned their apartment and was walking on the street, “ _so most part of the people was able to leave the place in time”_

 _“_ Most?”, he repeated in a whisper, causing V to exhale a resigned sigh.

“ _Yes. Guess who was the one who refused to leave until making sure that all the animals were safe”_

Nero grabbed the phone with more force. Of course Kyrie would do that. His friend was kind and stupidly reckless enough to put herself in such danger for the things she believed in.

“And how is she? Is she okay?”

V wasn’t able to mask his frustration and worry in the next sentence.

“ _I don’t know. They told me that when the firefighters entered she was unconscious on one of the floors. They managed to get her out in time but were pretty ambiguous about her state, on purpose I think, so I assume she is not out of danger yet. I’m on my way to take a taxi to go to the hospital now, so I’ll let you know when I have more information”_

Nero nodded before realizing V couldn’t see him, so he answered with a single ‘ _Okay_ ’ after which the poet finally hanged up. He was about to jump startled when Dante, who had been next to him all that time, placed a hand on his shoulder, even if the gesture itself had been surprisingly gentle.

“What’s wrong, Nero?”

To avoid beginning to talk rashly and without making any sense as it usually happened when he was nervous, Nero took a deep breath before answering. However, he couldn’t prevent his voice from trembling, much less to hide how fucking worried he was.

“It’s Kyrie. There was a fire on the shelter where she worked and she is now in the hospital”

“Holy shit”, Nico couldn’t help to exhale while Patty covered her mouth with her hand, Lady and Trish simply looking at him with concern.

“You know how she is, son?”, Morrison intervened, causing him to shake his head.

“No, V is going to the hospital now to find out. He says he’ll tell me when knowing something else”

After a small pause it was Dante the one who broke the silence.

“Do you want to come back now?”

Nero’s eyes illuminated automatically when hearing the guitarist’s proposal, but then Trish intervened.

“But how? We are six hours from there by car and the last train’s departure was an hour ago”

Nero tried that the disappointment didn’t show in his face too much. If it was up to him, he would rent a damn car to come back at that same moment, even if he knew that driving there after such a tiring day wasn’t clever at all and that Kyrie wasn’t going to get magically better by simply going there, but he hated the feeling of having to wait while doing nothing.

However he couldn’t do that, because probably the band wouldn’t let him go on his own: they were too nice and would surely want to accompany him if he insisted on going, so the correct thing to do was not to be a selfish brat, to act like a proper adult and to accept the fact that the only thing he could do at the moment was to wait for V’s news, as frustrating as that was. 

“It’s okay”, he was pretty sure that forcing a smile hadn’t been a good idea when seeing Trish’s face turning even more apologetic, “I mean, it sucks, but I can always come back tomorrow in the morning with the first train--”

“Morrison, can you send me the airport phone number?”

Everyone stared at Dante with surprise when hearing this one’s question, except the old man who simply showed a small knowing smile before extracting his mobile from the inner pocket of his jacket, beginning to type on it.

“But Dante, I think there aren’t any flights to Red Grave”, Lady commented with confusion.

“No, hon: there aren’t any _commercial_ flights with that destination”, Dante approached his mobile to his ear while keeping the other on his hip, “but I’m sure it’s different with private planes"

Nero’s eyes and mouth snapped opened while staring at the guitarist, because it couldn’t be that Dante was actually planning to--

“Good evening, miss”, Dante separated a little from him while beginning to talk on his phone , “look, I’m in kind of a rush here and I would need to rent a plane tonight to go to Red Grave. What can you offer me?”

“Wait, Dante!”, he stepped in front of the guitarist hurriedly, “what the hell are you doing? I’ve told you I can wait to--”

Nero’s heart stopped for a moment when feeling Dante’s hand against his lips in order to silence him, and even if the gesture just lasted a couple of seconds it was enough to make him obey

“Well, if we left in twenty minutes, I would owe you my life, dear... Yeah, I know it’s a hasty petition but we don’t mind to pay for the urgent service...Yeah, for two people is enough”

Dante hummed to himself, so Nero deduced the woman at the other side was proceeding with the offers.

“Okay, so we could be there in an hour and 45 minutes?...Great, for how much?”, Dante threw a glance towards Morrison, “2475$”

Nero’s eyes were about to leave their orbits when hearing the price. He looked at Morrison, honestly expecting to see the old man shaking his head when hearing such an outstanding price, but to his surprise the old man immediately nodded without the least hint of hesitation. In fact, with the exception of Nico that looked as bewildered as Nero, none of the ladies looked especially surprised by the turn of events.

“Awesome, we take it. Thanks a lot, love”, when Dante hanged up Nero was still staring at him in disbelief, “come on, kid: we have a plane to catch”

Nero’s dumbfounded expression was still in place while the others cheered him and while he was practically dragged to the taxi that Morrison called for him and Dante, and it didn’t completely vanish until the car stopped outside the airport and an air hostess lead them to the [aircraft](https://www.privatefly.com/private-jets/smallprop-aircraft-hire/Diamond-Twin-Star.html) that would carry them to Red Grave.

He entered in the plane after Dante and shook the hand that the pilot offered him in a little confused state, before taking a seat next to the guitarist behind the pilot.

“The belt, kid”

Nero had barely followed Dante’s indication when the pilot grabbed the controls and began to fly the plane, just needing to travel around 300 meters on the ground before taking off.

In no time they were in the air, and it was at that moment when Nero felt guiltiness assaulting him because, even if he was really relieved to be able to see Kyrie in a couple of hours, he had just costed _Devil May Cry_ more than 2000$, while kind of forcing Dante to be stuck there with him when the guitarist could have been resting in the hotel by now, among a lot of other things if the night had gone as planned.

“Just in time”, Dante exhaled leaning his head against the seat, unaware at the moment of Nero’s guilty expression, “damn, for a moment I thought that the taxi wouldn’t arrive in time. I knew it was a mistake to suggest the route Trish told us: I love her but her orientation is horrible--”

“Sorry”, Dante shut up, looking at Nero with a confused frown while this one exhaled a deep sigh, “I promise I will pay this back. I’ll tell Morrison that he adjusts my next salary”

Since Nero was scratching the back of his head while looking at everywhere but Dante, he failed to see the way the guitarist’s jaw tensed before talking with apparent calm.

“Hey, Nero”

The named one automatically turned towards Dante when being called, in time to receive a rather painful flick between his eyebrows.

“ _Ouch_!”, he exclaimed, covering his reddened skin with the palm of his hand, “damn, man, what the hell?”

“Yeah, kid, exactly: what the hell?”

Nero’s heart skipped a bit when the guitarist practically snapped those words. He realized that it was probably the first time that Dante looked honestly pissed off, so probably the fact that his first thought was ‘ _Shit, he looks hot_ ’ wasn’t particularly clever. Maybe he should stop criticizing the fans that got excited when Vergil was his usual condescending self because his reaction had been just as weird.

“What?”, Nero said not very cleverly, causing Dante to avert his eyes while exhaling a short sigh before passing a hand through the back of his neck, as if (for once) he was thinking about the best way to say what he wanted to say.

“Listen, kid, I get that maybe renting out of the blue a plane is not what people would call normal”

An ironic ‘ _No shit, really?’_ was about to escape from Nero’s mouth, but he shut up when Dante looked back at him because, even if he didn’t look as angry anymore, his expression kept being rather more serious than usual.

“But damn, there’s zero reason for you to say sorry for wanting to check on your friend, or for wanting to pay for this on your own when it’s an expense we _all_ can take care of”

“But--”

“No buts, kid”

Nero was going to protest nevertheless when Dante cut him off once again, but the guitarist placing a hand on his shoulder while leaning slightly over him prevented him from doing so, which allowed Dante to continue talking.

“Maybe it hasn’t sunk into you yet, but you’ve been part of this group for a while now, and that means…”, Dante tapped softly at Nero’s chest with the hand that wasn’t placed on his shoulder, “...that your problems are not just yours anymore, so do us a favor and instead of that shitty ‘sorry’ try going with a ‘thank you’ instead. And damn it, stop being stubborn by trying to do everything by yourself because, in case you haven’t noticed, the people of _Devil May Cry_ are quite experts in being nosy and won’t let you do that”, Nero held his breath when Dante approached even more until their noses were almost brushing, “myself included”

Nero gulped softly, realizing that the whole situation must be affecting him more than he’d like because, as nice as Dante’s words had been, feeling a small lump forming on his throat was a little excessive.

“I can go with the ‘thank you’ thing”, he eventually said, when making sure his voice wasn’t going to sound weird, “but can’t promise anything about _not_ being stubborn”

It was Dante’s turn to snort before finally separating from him, his usual smile again in place.

“Yeah, I guess that’s part of your charm”

Nero snorted again, leaning against the seat as well while focusing his gaze on the sight that the rather big plane window offered. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, trying not to think too much about Kyrie’s state since there wasn’t much he could do until arriving home. He didn’t realize that his legs were bouncing up and down in nervousness until Dante settled a hand on his knee, causing Nero to stop the movement while looking at the guitarist again.

“She will be okay”

The rational part of Nero knew that there was no way the guitarist could know that. In fact, he could perfectly imagine the faces that pragmatic people like V or Vergil would make if someone tried to comfort them with those words. But well, he had always been a simpler man than them, so Dante’s objectively unfounded cheer was enough to put a small smile on his face.

Dante was about to remove his hand from his knee when, without thinking, Nero settled his own on the top of Dante’s one, keeping it where it was. He was pretty sure that the red of his ears could compete with Dante’s coat when feeling the guitarist’s surprised expression on him, and Nero felt incredibly ridiculous at the moment for it. Damn, what was he? A maiden of an old Shojo? For goodness sake: they had been flirting all the fucking night and it was obvious they had planned to do way _more_ than holding hands in case they had made it to the hotel, so why the hell was he feeling that nervous?

However, foolish or not, Nero couldn’t help to feel relieved when Dante responded to the gesture and grabbed his fingers. Nero dared to shoot a glance towards the guitarist and had to suppress a chuckle when seeing Dante excessively interested in looking through his window, the same as him a second ago.

He couldn’t help to find funny that the Casanova Dante looked as awkward as him after doing such an innocent action, and he certainly hoped that Kyrie was able to laugh about that when they finally arrived to Red Grave.

* * *

When the aircraft landed at the regional airport and hour and half later, a taxi was already waiting for them there to take them to the hospital where Kyrie was. The door of the car had barely closed after Nero when this one turned his mobile on again, seeing that V had messaged him an hour ago saying that Kyrie was stable but that she hadn’t woken up yet. Nero felt his chest tighten again, since the fact that there weren’t more messages meant that Kyrie’s state hadn't improved yet.

The trip didn’t last more than 10 minutes but it looked like a much longer time for Nero, and when the taxi finally stopped in front of the hospital, he left the car in such a hurry that the door of his side bounced violently. He didn’t notice Dante apologizing to the taxi driver before following him inside, since he was already walking hurriedly towards the elevators. V had told him in the first message that Kyrie was in the 422 room, so he brusquely pressed the button of the elevator a couple of times while muttering low, impatient ‘ _Come on_ ’s. When some seconds passed and the elevator was still on the 5th floor he cursed while beginning to climb up the stairs two at a time.

Again, Nero missed the expression of horror that briefly passed through Dante’s face when realizing that he planned to climb the four flights of stairs before resignedly following him. After reaching the 4th floor with a slightly heavy breathing, Nero immediately began to half-run towards Kyrie’s room. His heart began to beat faster the closer he was to his destination, and when he finally reached the correct corridor and pinpointed V sitting in one of the chairs placed out of the rooms, he called for him with a louder voice he should be using in a hospital.

“V!”

At any other moment he would have surely laughed when the poet was about to fall from his seat before looking at Nero as if this one was a ghost, clearly not expecting seeing him there so soon.

“Nero?”, V sounded as if he didn’t believe yet Nero was there, his green eyes opening even more when seeing an almost out of air Dante appearing at the end of the corridor too, “how have you--?”

“Plane”, Nero said simply, looking at Kyrie’s room while Dante approached too, remaining a couple of meters behind him and V, “can I see her?”

V, who seemed to have more or less recovered from his stupor, shook his head negatively.

“They are performing a new check-up”, Nero recognized the monotone voice the poet used as the one he adopted when didn’t want to show his emotions, “it seems that she inhaled some smoke before being rescued. Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to cause her death, but the fact that she hasn’t woken yet might be a symptom of having suffered some kind of brain damage”

“Shit”, Nero whispered, looking at the room again. He was tempted to snap the door opened but refrained himself in time, looking at V again instead, “and how are you?”

V exhaled a long sigh before sitting on the chair again, legs crossed and fingers interlaced against his knee.

“Hating being in this kind of place even more than usual”

Nero sighed, taking a seat next to his friend while leaning his elbows on his knees and his hands between his legs, thinking that V had surely seen his good rations of hospital during all his life and that probably he hated seeing Kyrie in that state even more than him.

Dante, who had remained at a prudent distance while Nero and V talked, finally approached them to lean his back against the wall, next to where Nero was sitting. The guitarist hooked a hand inside his pocket while placing the other on Nero's shoulder as a silent support.

"I watched the concert by the way", V commented after some minutes, being Dante the one who answered with a curious smile.

"Yeah? Did you like it?"

"It was pretty decent. Though Nero running from one side of the stage to the other was my favorite part"

"What?!"

"Oh, so it was actually you? I thought it was a technician but thank you for proving my theory"

While Dante began to chuckle, he offered a half-hearted glare at V, being this one's answer a lightly tired smirk. Nero was about to reply that V had needed to be _really_ invested in watching the concert to have noticed such a tiny detail when the door of Kyrie’s room opened and a doctor exited from it.

Nero sprang from his chair, looking at the woman with expectation holding his breath while V also stood up more calmly, and when seeing her reassuring smile, the pang of relief that he felt was probably the most intense he had ever experienced.

“You can stop worrying: she is fine”, when hearing the doctor’s words Nero muttered a relieved curse while V let out a deep breath, “we will keep her under observation for the next two days for precaution but with rest and by following a liquid diet she will be completely recovered”

“Can we see her now?”, Nero immediately asked, and even if the doctor hesitated it seemed that his puppy eyes didn’t leave her indifferent.

“Yes, but please, be delicate. After all she has just woken up”

Nero nodded effusively while V’s imperturbable expression indicated that the poet really doubted he was able to do that. He was about to enter when he turned around towards Dante, finding him smiling with his arms crossed while still leaning against the wall.

“Will wait for you here, kid”, he simply said with a wink that caused Nero to nod with another smile before entering the room.

He repeated to himself the doctor’s words about being careful, and about not getting Kyrie excited, but when he saw her half-lying on the bed, a dropper connected to her arm and her reaction was simply to greet them with a way too carefree ‘Hi guys!’ in an obvious weakened voice, all Nero’s efforts went to waste.

“What the _FUCK_ were you thinking?!”

The door had barely closed behind them when Nero snapped that, causing V to sigh with resignation while Kyrie bit her bottom lip with a guilty expression that only made Nero angrier.

“Why the hell didn’t you leave like everyone else?”, Nero approached the bed brusquely until being next to Kyrie to keep talking rudely, “who the fuck do you think you are: Wonder Woman? Damn, you’re lucky to be alive, you know? They said...”, Nero gulped, frustrated of feeling a new lump forming in his throat, “...they said that maybe there was something wrong with you when it took you so damn to wake up. So don’t ‘Hi, guys!’ at us with such a fucking cheery tone because you have worried us to death, you stupid--”

Nero’s outburst was interrupted when Kyrie reached for his hand, realizing at the moment that the girl’s eyes were almost as bright as his.

“I’m sorry, Nero”, when she whispered that apology, Nero’s anger vanished as quickly as it had appeared, “I’m really sorry for having worried you two”

Nero gulped loudly, tried to keep talking, and then he gave up, exhaling a new curse before sitting on the side of the bed to hug Kyrie tightly. He bit his lower lip not to cry but when Kyrie began to softly caress the back of his hair, he didn’t try to hold back the relieved tears anymore. After all his childhood friend had survived to a fire: unless he had a heart of stone there was no way he couldn’t react...

“Bravo, Nero. First prize to delicacy”

...or unless he was V, he thought while joining Kyrie’s laughter after hearing the poet’s ironic comment.

Nero straightened his position again and rubbed his eyes brusquely before ‘glaring’ at the poet, who had taken a seat on the chair next to Kyrie’s bed and was looking at him with amusement.

“Hey, I held back: I didn’t snap the door open, did I?”

“He is right: he deserves at least the second prize”, Kyrie intervened with a smile, causing V to click his tongue.

“I disagree. He doesn't deserve a podium place”

Nero and Kyrie laughed again when hearing V’s cutting answer before the mood got more serious again when Kyrie talked with concern.

“So everyone survived? The animals too?”

When V nodded Kyrie let out a deep breath, leaning against the pillows again.

“Thank goodness”, her voice sounded more frustrated when talking next, “do the police know who did this?”

“They are still investigating but they are positive they will be able to find the culprits”

Kyrie nodded before exhaling a long sigh.

“That place was so nice. I hope we can find something as good”

Nero pressed Kyrie’s hand softly.

“Yeah, I’m sure you will”

“And if the building was insured you can invest the money in the new place”, V added, causing Kyrie to nod softly.

“Yes, it was, although now the prices are so high that I doubt it’s close to enough”, Kyrie’s hesitation soon disappeared, “but I’m sure we’ll figure it out. Although maybe I have to invade your apartment for the time being”

“It’s alright”, V suddenly said, “I’m sure that it won’t pass much time until Nero begins to spend the nights somewhere else so you’ll surely be able to use his bed, as long as you don’t mind to sleep on not very clean sheets”

“What?!”, Kyrie looked at Nero with her eyes open wide while this one stared at V with stupor, “Nero, what is V talking about?!”

“Okay, what the fuck V, are you a witch or something?”

“I don’t need to: your reaction has just proved me right again”

“God, I hate when you do that”

“Guys, don’t ignore me!!”, Kyrie began to shake Nero’s arm with impatience, “Nero, speak, NOW: did something happen in the concert?!”

Nero exhaled a long, defeated sigh.

“No, it didn’t”, after a short pause he continued, deciding that it wasn’t worth it to risk his life by hiding something from Kyrie, “although it was about to happen when V told me about the fire”

“ _What_?! Oh my god, oh my god, does that mean that I--that I--”

“As vulgar as it sounds, I think that the most accurate word to use here would be ‘cockblock’”

“ _V_!”

“But Dante is just outside this room, so there’s still a chance that you haven’t completely ruined Nero’s night”

As if he had been summoned, at that moment Dante stomped inside the room, closing the door rapidly behind him before leaning against it. The guitarist’s unexpected appearance caused Kyrie to exhale a surprised squeak, Nero to curse and V to simply observe the scene with way too much amusement.

“Sorry for the intrusion”, the guitarist apologized, approaching the bed, “but while trying to find something edible some people recognized me and I had to hide”, Dante looked at Kyrie next with a smile, “Kyrie, right? How are you feeling, love? The kid here was really worried about you”

“I-I’m perfectly fine, thank you”, Kyrie said in a tone that still was a little more high-pitched than usual, “but you must be exhausted after the concert and the trip, so you both should leave. Right now. To... _rest_.”

Nero had to really suppress the urge of face-palming when hearing Kyrie not-subtle-at-all way to try to fix things.

“Yes, I will stay with her tonight and you can take over tomorrow, if the buses are working of course”

Nero frowned with confusion, not understanding V’s comment but being sure the poet had a hidden motive to say that.

“What’s wrong with the buses?”, Dante inquired with curiosity, causing V to speak again with a light tone.

“Since tomorrow it’s feast day the bus frequency will probably be affected, and our apartment is not precisely too well communicated, but well, I’m sure that in the worst case scenario Nero would just need to wait an hour to be here. And since Kyrie is rather fine, I doubt that there is an emergency that forces him to come back in the middle of the night”

Nero froze, staring at V in disbelief.

It couldn’t be that V was making the most of the situation to manipulate Dante to--

“Well, my apartment is not very far from the hospital”

He felt his heart stop when hearing Dante’s completely innocent comment, answering himself that yes, definitely V was setting everything up so that he slept in Dante’s house that night.

“Oh, really?”

Probably the only one who got fooled by V’s surprised tone was Dante, because Kyrie seemed to be suppressing a laugh while Nero’s efforts were focused on not looking excessively nervous.

“Yeah, he wouldn’t even need to take public transport to be here, so…”, Dante’s next sentence was addressed to Nero, who felt his heart accelerate a little when seeing the guitarist’s smile, “...if you don’t mind the disorder, you could spend the night there tonight”

Nero really wished that Kyrie was more subtle instead of looking at him with such insistence, since he could almost hear her thoughts of: ‘ _Say yes, say yes, say YES_ ’’.

“Oh, I’m sure he won’t mind. He’s pretty disorganized as well”

V’s comment caused Dante to laugh while Nero was still assimilating that he would be sleeping in Dante’s house that night, maybe even _with_ him.

“Then it’s decided”, Dante turned towards Kyrie to take her hand, approaching it to his lips in a way that made the girl blush a little, “I wish it would have been in better circumstances but it was nice to meet you”

Kyrie answered with a little nervous ‘ _Same here_ ’ and when Dante abandoned the room first to give Nero more privacy to say goodbye to his friends, she immediately turned towards Nero to whisper a soft, enthusiastic ‘ _Good luck_ ’ to him. This one exhaled a sigh before approaching the girl to kiss her on the cheek. He turned towards V next and when this one also whispered an obliging ‘ _You are welcome_ ’ he couldn’t help to chuckle softly before muttering back a ‘ _Thank you_ ’, palming once V’s arm before abandoning the room.

He was surprised when not seeing Dante there but at that moment his phone vibrated in his pocket.

 

>> **_Dante (1:27 a.m.)_** \- _Fans spotted me again and had to run (-_-)_

_> > **Dante (1:28 a.m.)** \- Waiting 4 you in the back of the hospital ;)_

 

Nero bit his lower lip while answering with a short ‘ok’, nervousness and anticipation settling in his system again.

It seemed that the night wasn’t close to be over yet after all.

* * *

“Well, here we are”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened when Dante turned the lights on and he saw that the guitarist’s [living room](https://s3.amazonaws.com/zumpermedia/blog/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2018-05-16-at-11.04.33-AM.png) was bigger than his whole apartment.

“The guest room is upstairs”, Dante approached the sofa to rapidly gather the clothes that were scattered on it, “it has its own private bathroom so feel free to use it”

Nero pretended not to see how Dante hid some magazines with nude women on their cover by kicking them under the sofa and began to look around a little. During the small walk from the hospital to Dante’s apartment they called the others to tell them about the good news of Kyrie being okay, and he had had time to calm down when the ladies began to tease Dante saying that they hoped that his house wasn’t as ‘clean’ as his private room in the office.

“Should I be worried of finding a naked woman in the guest room?”

As expected, his comment caused Dante to snort from the [open kitchen](http://hausede.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/kreative-moderne-kueche-insel-kueche-insel-moderne-kueche-die-anderen-sven-lavine.jpg), before throwing all the clothes he had gathered inside the washing machine.

“Rest easy, kid. No woman has stepped here in a good while”

Nero, who was observing with curiosity the shelves full of CDs situated next to the 60’’ TV, laughed skeptically.

“And how much is that ‘a good while’? Two weeks?”

Dante chuckled while opening a garbage bag.

“Nope. Six years”

Nero turned his head brusquely to look at Dante.

“ _What_?”

“Yep”, Dante shook the bag with emphasis to throw the empty pizza boxes resting on the kitchen counter inside, “actually, Trish is the only one who was here once, so be honored kid”, Dante looked at Nero mockingly, “not everyone can say they have spent the night in the home of the most famous guitarist”

Nero snorted loudly as an answer before excusing himself to climb up the stairs, fighting to push back the grin that threatened to split his face in two after knowing that he was special enough for Dante to be invited there.

The guest’s [bathroom](http://www.decohoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/walk-in-shower-designs-stainless-steel-big-shower-head-glass-door-porcelain-wall-and-floor-floating-white-vanity-sink-wide-mirror-window.jpg) was as impressive as the rest of the house, and Nero had no doubts that the shower he took there was one of the best he had ever had. When he left it 10 minutes later he felt extremely refreshed, as if the warm water had helped reduce all the tension suffered during the day and specially during the night. He returned to the bedroom and proceeded to extract the pajama he had brought from his bag. He had just put his pants on and was about to wear his loose, grey t-shirt when he came across the condoms he had put inside that same morning.

He sighed softly, considering coming back to the shower to perform an even more thorough clean up in case the night turned out as initially expected, when suddenly Dante called him from the first floor, making him be about to break the bag’s zipper in his hurry to close it.

“Hey, kid!”

Nero waited for his heart to normalize before exiting the bedroom while finishing putting his t-shirt on, looking over the banister to find Dante in the kitchen area, closing the fridge before turning around facing him. The guitarist was now wearing a messy ponytail that still left most part of his hair loose and had changed into a pair of black, sport pants that hung too low on his hips, since Nero could see the waistband of the man’s red boxers. He was also wearing a single white, short-sleeved t-shirt with a wide neck that made Nero re-discover his weakness for collarbones.

“How hungry are you?”

‘ _For you? You have_ no _idea_ ’, Nero couldn’t help to think, feeling embarrassed almost immediately after.

“Not much”, he said instead while climbing down the stairs, “why?”

“Because the fridge is almost empty”, Dante settled his hands on his hips, “and probably 2.07 a.m. isn’t the best hour to ask for dinner”

Nero, who was at ground level, signaled at the fridge with a movement of his chin.

“Can I take a look?”

“Yeah, sure”

Dante stepped aside, allowing Nero to open the fridge again and take a peek inside.

“There are enough eggs, ham and cheese to make a couple of omelets”

Nero looked at Dante and smiled ironically when seeing the guitarist looking too imperturbable.

“Don’t tell me the rich boy doesn’t even know how to make a simple omelet”

Dante’s defensive tone when talking next was all the answer Nero needed.

“Okay, first: thanks for calling me boy, it’s better than old man. And second: it’s not my fault to be surrounded by people who knows how to cook”, Dante dared to huff, offended, when Nero offered him and ‘Oh, really’ expression, “what? If Lady or Morrison like how to cook I’m not going to ruin their fun”

“Wait, Lady cooks well?”, Nero asked with surprise, causing Dante to nod with a smile.

“Oh yeah. She is awesome. Not like Trish or me”

“Really? I always thought Trish was good at it”

“Yeah, as good as she is when driving”

“Oh my god...”

“Yep. _That_ bad”

“And just out of curiosity: how the hell did you two survive when you were together?”

“Simple: we always invited ourselves to have dinner with the ones that knew how to cook without poisoning themselves”

Nero exhaled a laugh before shaking his head, taking all what he needed from the fridge.

“Then I guess that I’m in charge of the dinner”, Nero said with a purposely exaggerated sigh that made Dante chuckle.

“Hey now: the apartment is on me _and_ also the ingredients, so it’s fair that the dinner is on you”

Nero pretended to think as if he was not very convinced before shrugging his shoulders.

“Fair enough. But since I’m the cooker the biggest omelet will be for me”

“Hah?! Thought you weren’t hungry”

“And I’m not. You haven’t seen me hungry yet”

“Oh my god, I really hope to win that bet”

Needless to say, Dante kept being around while Nero prepared dinner, and even if there was a really nice table in the living room they ended eating on the kitchen counter while keeping talking. Nero was really amused when Dante enjoyed the pretty simple dinner quite a lot.

It was close to 2.45 a.m. when they finished, but none of them wanted to go to sleep yet, automatically moving to the sofa to continue with their chatting.

“Thanks a lot for the dinner, kid”, Dante said while dropping against the sofa with his legs crossed and his hands interlaced behind his head, “it was honestly one of the best omelets I’ve ever eaten”

Nero sat down next to Dante, exhaling a satisfied sigh while putting himself comfortable against the pretty amazing sofa, with his right leg crossed under his left and his arms crossed

“Thank your kitchen for it. It was really easy to cook on it”, Nero observed around again with an impressed look, “the apartment is really cool, by the way”

Dante chuckled.

“Thanks, but all the furniture was already here when I rented it, so the merit isn’t mine”

“Yeah, I guess that you just brought the disorder”

Dante half-closed his eyes at Nero, causing this one to offer him a small smirk, such an interaction having become something quite recurrent between them already. They remained in a brief comfortable silence for almost a minute before Dante yawned.

“Damn, I’m tired but not sleepy”

“Same”, Nero suppressed another yawn, “in 4 hours we’ll have been awake for an entire day”

“Shit, you are right”, Dante exhaled a laugh before looking at Nero with a challenging expression, “I bet you will fall asleep sooner than me”

Nero snorted with a smile.

“Seriously, what’s with you and bets?”

“What? They’re funny. Specially because I always win”

“Maybe up till now, but you’ll see your luck ran out when you met me, old man”

“You sure? Because I think it’s the opposite”

Nero’s cocky expression disappeared when Dante dropped that last comment so casually, feeling the tip of his ears reddening when the guitarist’s eyes glinted in that way that usually made Nero’s stomach do a flip flop. It seemed Dante wasn’t lying back then when saying that in case of wanting to seduce him, he would put more effort into it.

“I had fun today”, Dante commented suddenly, causing Nero to smile and nod.

“Yeah. Being there was as cool as I’d imagined”

Dante chuckled, crossing his arms in front of his chest mimicking Nero’s posture.

“I’m glad to hear it, kid”

They inevitably kept talking about the concert, Nero telling Dante about how he kind of panicked when the spotlights began to fail while the guitarist mentioned that he had enjoyed a lot being suspended in the air. Nero had just begun to tease Dante about not being sure who had done the flying performance better when a strident music invaded the living room, causing Nero to jump on the sofa like a startled cat, which made Dante laugh.

“Easy there. It’s just my mobile”, the guitarist said between chuckles, leaning forwards to recover it from the table.

Nero was about to suggest Dante to choose a music that didn’t cause heart-attacks when seeing the way the guitarist tensed, smile a little frozen in his face.

“Something wrong?”

“No”, the pause that followed the negative was a little too long, which made Nero suspect that Dante was lying, “it’s Vergil”

“At this hour?”, he said with confusion, causing Dante to show a little smirk.

“Seems like someone made the most of the night with his girlfriend”

But Nero didn’t fall for the change of topic, continuing looking at Dante inquisitively because it was obvious that the guitarist was hiding something.

“And what did he want?”

Dante exhaled a defeated laugh.

“Damn, you are persistent”, for a moment Nero thought that maybe Dante would refuse to answer, but after a short pause he continued talking, “he wanted to know if I would join him this time in tomorrow’s trip”

The nature of the mentioned trip didn’t sound precisely happy, so this time Nero adopted a more cautious tone when asking again.

“A trip where?”

It took Dante a couple of seconds to answer, and when he did, the mocking was completely gone from his voice.

“To my mother’s hometown”

Not having expected the answer at all, Nero’s eyes opened more. This time he decided to remain silent and not to press the guitarist for more questions because, even if usually Dante (on the contrary than Vergil) didn’t particularly mind that people asked about his private life, Nero didn’t recall that the man had ever talked about their parents, the only information that was known about them being that their mother had died in a fire.

Nero felt his heart skip a beat, wondering if that night’s incident in the shelter had somehow woken up bad memories in Dante. However, he hadn’t much time to beat himself about it because at that moment the guitarist continued talking.

“Every year Vergil goes there to visit her grave on All Saints' Day. Neither Vergil nor me are religious but out mother was Catholic, so it’s my brother’s way to honor her.”

It was probably the first time since Nero knew about Dante that the man seemed to have problems in being his usual talkative self. He initially waited for the guitarist to continue, but when some seconds had passed and Dante was still hesitating between keeping going or not, Nero forgot his initial plan of no pressing the guitarist.

“And you don’t go?”

Dante shook his head negatively.

“Nope. And I know this is going to be hard to believe because everyone knows that there’s no one cooler than the guitarist of _Devil May Cry,_ but _..._ ”, the joking component in Dante’s voice faded until just the serious one remained, “...I couldn’t bring myself to go to see her there, you know?”

When hearing Dante, an idea that Nero didn’t like one bit popped in his mind.

“Hey, you aren’t blaming yourself about her death or something like that, right?”

As it usually happened when hearing something he didn’t like, the words escaped Nero’s mouth before thoroughly thinking them, realizing too late that he had been way too blunt. Hopefully, Dante simply chuckled.

“No. At least, not anymore. I used to think that maybe if I had reacted better, she wouldn’t have needed to protect me and maybe she had survived, but I was 8 at the time. I was just a kid, so rationally I know it wasn’t my fault”

“Then what’s stopping you from seeing her?”

Dante exhaled a deep sigh, settling a hand on the back of his neck before beginning to talk in a voice that, this time, _did_ definitely sound guilty.

“Because I didn’t do enough. At the time, it was almost impossible to prove that my mother had indirectly died because of my father. He was a businessman who got involved with the wrong people, which resulted in his body being found in an alley while our house was burned to the ground, causing my mother’s death as a result”

Nero gulped when hearing Dante’s hard explanation, remorse palpable in the guitarist’s words.

“And no one found out the culprits?”

Dante exhaled a swallow chuckle.

“Yes, Vergil did”, once again, Nero’s jaw hanged slack, not having foreseen the answer, “after what happened, he swore that he would get revenge to the people who did that to our parents, and especially to our mother. So he studied to be a prosecutor, became one of the best, and then, at the risk of his career and even his life, he managed to find them and made them pay for what they did. And what did I do in the meantime?”, Dante exhaled a self-mocking laugh, “easy: nothing. While Vergil did all that alone, I simply lived my life as if all of that didn’t matter, wasting my time with girls and in music instead of doing something useful”

While Dante vented Nero simply listened to him, thinking that the twins had had it way rougher than it could seem at first glance, but when Dante said that last sentence with an almost dismissive tone, he frowned.

“What do you mean that you wasted your time in music?”

Dante noticed Nero’s annoyance because he immediately rectified himself.

“Look, I’m not saying that _Devil May Cry_ is useless. Modesty aside we are a great band and we all have hella fun playing together. But you have to admit that forming a group is pretty poor compared to putting a band of criminals and murderers behind bars”, Dante crossed his arms again, talking with a super convinced expression that made Nero grit his teeth, “so I kinda prefer to have done something more relevant in my life before facing our mother--”

Dante’s sentence was interrupted with a surprised, loud ‘ _Ouch_ ’ when Nero suddenly leaned forward to smack him with his hand on the top of his head, causing the guitarist to grab it with an expression that was half-astonished and half-pained.

“What the hell, kid, what’s gotten into you?”

“That’s for insulting _Devil May Cry_ ”

“I wasn’t insulting it! I just say that compared to--”

“Shut up”

Nero hadn’t time to appreciate how Dante’s eyes and mouth opened for being ordered around, being busy in trying to put in order his thoughts for once or otherwise the irritation he was feeling for Dante being underestimating the band _and_ himself would make him blurt nonsense as usual.

“Okay, maybe you’re right”, he began with a calm that, he knew, wouldn’t last much, “maybe you could have done more when you were younger instead of being fooling around, _but_ if you hadn’t stayed out of whatever fishy deals Vergil was involved with, maybe he wouldn’t be here right now”

Dante’s eyes managed to open a little more.

“Wait a moment, how the hell do you know that I--?”

“Because Nico told me that you had helped Vergil in his old job, so it isn’t necessary to be a genius to guess he got in trouble by pursuing those people, and that you helped him when that happened”

“ _Nico_? But how the hell does she know--?”

“And _…_ ”, Nero ignored Dante’s logical confused state to continue,“...she also told me that it wasn’t the only thing you did for the group: Lady, Trish, you also helped them when they were in trouble”, Nero gulped, fixing his eyes on Dante when talking next, “and also me”

Dante frowned, looking even more confused if possible.

“You? Nero, if you are talking about hiring you, you are helping us as much, surely even more, so I don’t think that counts”

“It was years ago”, he continued when seeing that Dante planned to interrupt him again, talking faster than before partly because he didn’t want to give a fucking speech and partly because he was a little nervous for what it was going to come next, “I was 15 and I was still on the orphanage. Kyrie had left it a year ago because her brother had turned 18 and had decided to take care of her, and since he thought I was a bad influence we could barely see her. Also, at that time V had suffered too many severe coughing attacks and was sent to the hospital to be examined, even if he didn’t want to because he knew they weren’t going to find anything”

Dante was now observing him in silence with such interest that Nero felt his heart accelerate while continuing talking.

“So, at that time, I was alone, and although I knew that Kyrie was still there and that V was going to come back it was a really shitty week because all the kids of the orphanage were way younger than us, I had no one to talk to, and the people in charge of the place were pressuring me to continue with my studies after school, even if I was beginning to see that I didn’t want to do that. And one of those nights, while I was in my room without being able to sleep, I turned the radio on and _you_ were on it, singing”, Nero knew he was starting to sound defensive, but he couldn’t help it: he always got like that when feeling embarrassed and he _really_ was for being saying all that, “and I know maybe this sounds stupid, and that probably I was just a teenager overreacting, but listening to that [song](https://youtu.be/0H1RToc0WgY?t=163) when I was feeling like crap helped me”

The way Dante was looking at him right then, lightly holding his breath with an unreadable serious expression, made the task of keeping the guitarist’s intense gaze quite difficult, but Nero had never backed down from a challenge, and definitely he wasn’t going to do it now.

“And now you will say: ‘but more groups could have done the same, it was a coincidence I was singing at the moment’. Yeah, maybe, but I don’t care: those groups weren’t there when I was feeling down: _you_ were. And if this reason isn’t enough to convince you, be sure that like hell if Vergil would’ve been part of this if it was that ‘irrelevant’”, Nero made an air quoting gesture with sarcasm before talking in an almost threatening way, “so you better stop saying bullshit like you haven’t done anything worthy or that you still have to prove something if you don’t want to receive a punch in the face”

Nero finally finished, his lightly accelerated breathing after having talked that much without stopping sounding pretty loud in the now silent living room.

The tension surrounding them was so thick that it could be cut with a knife, especially because Dante and Nero’s eyes kept locked, none of them willing to avert their gaze, and when the guitarist finally talked, Nero felt his heart skip a beat because the low, lightly ragged tone Dante used was completely unfamiliar to him, and didn’t know how to read it.

“Can I say something now?”

Nero suppressed a gulp before nodding, his look even more determined than before.

He wondered if Dante would get angry at him for having talked about things he didn’t know much about, so he got ready to fight back whatever Dante planned to say.

 

All his preparation was for nothing.

 

Because, definitely, the last thing he was expecting was that Dante suddenly leaned over in order to kiss him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you it would happen soon :DD


	13. Not bad for a virgin

For second time that night, time froze for Nero when Dante’s lips met his, because considering the not-at-all subtle flirting that had taken place along the entire night and also during the past week, he had kind of expected that their first contact of that kind when the chance finally arose would be more rushed, wilder. However, despite the gentleness the kiss carried, the reactions that Nero’s body suffered, stomach clenched and heart accelerated, were as powerful as the ones he got when Dante had hinted he wanted to sleep with him after the concert finished.

Nero couldn’t help to think two things at the moment: first, that at the end Dante hadn’t answered anything after Nero spent his good minutes talking, opting to kiss him instead without any more words; and second, that finally, _finally_ , something was happening between Dante and him, so like _hell_ if he was going to protest about it.

For that reason, when after some seconds Dante tried to separate, he didn’t hesitate in seeking the guitarist’s mouth with his, joining them again in a new, still chaste kiss that caused Dante to softly groan low in his throat, apparently pleased that he was the one in initiating it. Nero grabbed the front of Dante’s pajama t-shirt, wanting to prevent the guitarist from pulling away again, but when Dante’s answer was to swift his body with their lips still locked while guiding Nero to completely lean his back against the sofa, he deduced that stopping was the furthest thing on Dante’s mind at the moment.

Anticipation invaded Nero when Dante’s tongue tentatively slid across his lower lip, testing the waters. He didn’t hesitate in granting Dante the access he was subtly asking, parting his lips a little to encourage the man to invade his mouth as he pleased. His stomach tightened almost painfully when their tongues met, which made him unable to suppress a relieved moan this time. It wasn’t a surprise that Dante was _extremely_ good at kissing, the bastard surely had experience in the matter, but still Nero wasn’t expecting to feel getting hard so damn soon because of it.

For a moment he felt that his pride had suffered a low blow for being _that_ affected when it wasn’t his first rodeo in French-kissing someone, but when Dante placed a hand on his hip, thumb sneaking under his t-shirt to touch skin, while expertly rolling his tongue around Nero’s, all his irrelevant thoughts completely vanished. Because shit, he was now with _Dante_ , so of course that kissing him wasn’t going to compare to doing it with his previous partners, as good as some of them could have been.

When Dante tilted his head to change the angle in order to deepen the kiss, immediately finding a particularly sensitive spot inside his mouth, Nero released the guitarist’s t-shirt and reached up to tangle his fingers in the back of Dante’s disheveled hair, gripping it with more force than intended. Far from disliking it or protesting about it, Dante groaned softly against his mouth again, causing Nero to make the most of the guitarist’s brief distraction to take the upper hand the next time their mouths connected.

Nero lost track of how much time they spent making out calmly, easily minutes, but the only reason why they stopped was in order to gather some air. They didn’t separate much though, breathings heavy and lips glistening with saliva, their noses rubbing softly, and when Nero opened his eyes again his heart skipped a beat, because the smile that Dante had on his face was new too: still half-joking but also full of a warmth that hadn’t been there before.

“Thanks”

When Dante whispered that word, a sudden idea crossed Nero’s mind, making him snap the next words with an almost threatening tone.

“Wait, you better not have done this _just_ to say thank you”

Dante blinked exaggeratedly slow, and Nero immediately relaxed when an ironic expression passed to adorn the guitarist’s face.

“Yeah, Nero, that’s my signature to say thank you. For that reason Morrison never wants to accept them. He doesn't like how my beard feels”

Nero exhaled a chuckle due to the image Dante’s comment had evoked, while the guitarist kept looking at him with a sardonic smile.

“Okay. Sorry, but had to be sure”

Dante snorted before leaning back a little, putting some more distance between them even if his hand kept being comfortably placed on Nero’s hip.

“Jeez, the first time I manage to do something romantic and you ruin it”, he protested with his usual joking tone, causing Nero to roll his eyes with a smile before kissing Dante briefly again before looking at him with curiosity.

“Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, sure”

Nero couldn’t help that some impatience slipped in his tone when talking next.

“Why the fuck didn’t you do this sooner?”

Dante exhaled a sort laugh.

“Well, I could ask you the same thing, kid _”_

It was Nero’s turn to open his eyes wide in disbelief.

“Wait, so all this time you were waiting for me to give the first step?”, the way Dante awkwardly scratched his jaw was enough answer for Nero, “are you really telling me that you didn’t notice it sooner?”

“Notice what?”

Nero half-closed his eyes when Dante talked in a fake oblivious tone that clearly contrasted with the smirk in his face, knowing that the bastard wanted him to say it aloud. Well, if that’s what Dante wanted, he would kindly deliver, so without averting his eyes from him Nero leaned forward, approaching his mouth to the guitarist’s ear and causing his breath to hitch slightly.

“That I fucking liked you since the moment I made a fool of myself in that audition”

It seemed that Nero’s suspicions of Dante liking when he was blunt were accurate because, even if he hadn’t said nothing special, the snarling tone he used seemed to do the trick, causing Dante to pin him against the sofa again to initiate a new open-mouthed kiss that made Nero moan appreciatively during it.

Technically he had been liking Dante for way more time than that, but Nero thought that confessing that his crush had lasted almost 10 years was a little heavy, and that probably it was better to leave it at that for the current time. Besides, he himself hadn’t been aware of his own feelings until his first day at work, so he hadn’t exactly lied. Not completely.

“Okay, first, I’ve always thought that you swearing is hot as hell”

If Nero wasn’t still recovering from the kiss he would have surely reacted more when hearing Dante’s slightly aroused tone, but he made sure to store that interesting piece of information for later.

“And second: sorry kid, but no. I didn’t suspect anything until that trip in train, when your glare almost kills that poor woman”

“What the--it wasn’t like that!”, the guitarist’s mocking expression made Nero remember that Stella herself had found out about his feelings for Dante, so he got a little defensive when talking next, “okay, maybe I was a little obvious”

“Yep, definitely you were”

“But then…”, Nero continued, ignoring Dante’s mocking annotation, “...does that mean that you liked me back then already?”

Dante thought for a moment.

“Yeah. I think?”

Nero looked at the guitarist in disbelief when hearing his unsure tone.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t know?”

It was Dante’s turn to enter defensive mode when Nero looked about to laugh at any moment.

“Oi, this is not like a switch, you know? I didn’t suddenly pass from ‘ _Hey, I like that kid, he is cool_ ’ to ‘ _Damn, I_ really _like that kid, he is cool_ and _hot_ ’. It was a more gradual change”, Dante paused for a moment before continuing, “but yeah, when we reached the motel I think the switch had flipped already”

Nero realized that eventually Kyrie hadn’t been wrong in her assumptions of Dante liking him by then. He knew he should tell her the next day but shit, he wasn’t ready to be standing her ‘ _See? See?!_ ’ for the rest of the week (or month).

“So, what you are saying is that we were in a motel, alone, for an entire night, liking each other and none of us did nothing about it”

Dante hummed to himself before nodding.

“Yep, nice summary”

Nero exhaled a frustrated groan while Dante sighed with resignation. Shit, now he felt like a complete idiot for not having had the guts of confessing sooner.

“And also, I don’t want to be mean buuut…”, Dante patted his shoulder twice, “...it was kinda your fault”

“ _Excuse me_?”, Nero snapped when Dante nodded with an annoying convinced expression, “Dante, it was you the one who spent all the damn day flirting with Stella, so how the hell you wanted _me_ to confess?”

“Well, I clearly ignored a date with high possibilities of getting laid, didn’t I?”, Dante said with his usual delicacy, “so I think _that_ was a sound hint. And also, _you_ were the one who began to talk to your poet friend and made it look as if you were gonna spend the weekend locked at home having sex”

“What the fuck?! We were just talking about going out the weekend! What made you think that we--?”

“‘It’s you the one who is always asking for more’”

Nero’s eyes almost left their orbits when Dante said that as if repeating his words.

“I don’t remember saying that”

Dante snorted.

“Believe me, kid: you did. And also that you weren’t going to get any rest…”

“Because Kyrie was going to drag us out to party hard!”

“...and that you couldn’t wait for it…”

“I’m sure that comment was ironic”

“...and then that misunderstanding with Lady happened and we all believed you were together, so obviously I wasn’t going to try anything”

Nero honestly didn’t remember what his exact conversation with V had been, but Dante’s resigned tone when saying the last sentence made him forget his annoyance for having been (unfairly) accused.

“Yeah, I do remember how awkward it was when you and V met”

Dante huffed, sitting again with his back against the sofa cushions but closer to Nero, their shoulders in contact.

“And can you blame me? He was young, hella attractive and clever, and among those three I could only compete against two”

“Dante, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you are not _that_ young”

It took the guitarist a moment to understand Nero’s comment, causing him to snort again.

“I guess that means you think I’m hot, so I’m not going to complain”

Nero didn’t deny the obvious, but something in Dante’s words made him speak with curiosity once again.

“So, you were worried about being too old for me?”

Dante sighed softly, crossing his arms.

“Well, ‘worried’ is a little strong word”, Dante’s voice began sounding as nonchalant as always before turning more serious, “but yeah, the truth is the thought crossed my mind more than once”

“Really? But you have been with women that were younger than you”

“Yeah, but that was different”

“Why?”

Dante looked at Nero with a smile.

“Because with them I just wanted to have fun. Nothing more serious than that”, Dante shrugged softly, clear blue eyes fixed in Nero’s, “with you, that wasn’t enough”

Nero gulped slowly and, in an impulse, he leaned forward to kiss Dante with intensity, not bothering to hide how damn much he had liked that Dante confirmed once again that he also preferred a more serious relationship than a quick fuck on the spur of the moment. The guitarist immediately responded to Nero’s eagerness, disentangling his crossed arms to settle his hands on Nero’s hips again, the grip on them tightening when Nero pulled softly at Dante’s bottom lip with his teeth before separating. So Dante also liked that. He’d make sure to remember it too.

“But glad to see you don’t mind the age difference”, Dante joked, causing Nero to huff softly.

“Not that it means much. You aren’t precisely the most mature person ever”

Dante half-closed his eyes, and the smirk the guitarist showed next made Nero suspect he wasn’t going to like the words that were going to follow.

“Yeah, well, and also I should have known that some people are into that ‘daddy’ stuff so--”

“Oh, god, _NO_ ”

“What? You don’t like that?”

“Dante, what part of ‘ _Oh god, NO_ ’ you haven’t understood?”

“Come on, Nero, don’t be like that with your dadd--”

“ _DANTE_!”, the guitarist burst out laughing when hearing Nero’s horrified shout, “please, don’t tell me you are into that”

Dante shook his head, still laughing when hearing Nero’s pleading tone.

“Nah, don’t worry. Just was dying to see your reaction. And I wasn’t disappointed”

The guitarist exhaled a pained ‘ouch’ when Nero punched his shoulder, feeling his ears still red for second-hand embarrassment.

“Asshole”

“Not the last time you’ll call me that”, Dante teased with a wink that caused Nero to ‘glare’ at him, eyes about to half-close again when the guitarist began to dive forward to kiss him again as an apology.

Before their lips met again, a music as strident as the one which had sounded some minutes ago invaded the room again, startling Dante this time and causing Nero to show a condescending smile.

“Easy there. It’s just your mobile”

Dante half-heartedly glared at him when he purposely repeated the man’s previous words before picking up the call.

“Hey, Vergil... Sorry, I was kinda busy”, Dante’s eyes opened more for a moment before exhaling a soft laugh, throwing a brief amused glance at Nero, “yeah, he’s here”

By then Nero didn’t find surprising at all that Vergil had somehow deduced Dante and him were together, knowing that the bassist’s intuition was extremely scary.

“I read your message, yeah”, Dante exhaled a sigh, looking back at Nero and smiling softly when this one nodded rather effusively, “yeah, this year I’m up”, the guitarist rolled his eyes, addressing his next words to Nero, “my dear brother says thank you for putting some sense into my hard skull”

Nero exhaled a laugh, answering with a louder ‘ _You’re welcome_ ’ so that Vergil could hear him. Dante spent the following minute talking with Vergil about plane schedules before they seemed to agree on one.

“Yeah, you can buy those...Yeah, I promise I will pay them...”, Dante huffed, “...hey, come on, I have paid all my debts…”, Dante gulped, “...damn, forgot about that…”, Dante’s eyes opened impossibly wide, “... _That_ much?...Okay, shit, I _promise_ I will return it next week, okay?...Hah?! What do you mean with _interest_?! Come on, have some heart and make your little brother a special price--”, Dante sighed with resignation, looking at Nero while separating his mobile from his ear, “he hanged up. Typical Vergil”

Nero was about to say that it was more like a ‘Typical Dante’ not to pay his brother in time when Dante looked at him hesitantly.

“What?”, he inquired.

“Vergil is going to buy the tickets now”, Dante exhaled a sigh, “the plane leaves in 3 hours”

Dante didn’t need to add anything more so that Nero understood the light apologetic expression that was adorning the guitarist’s face.

“Oh”, _very smooth, Nero,_ he thought self-mockingly before keeping talking with a tone that, he hoped, sounded decently normal, “well, then we should go to sleep now, since I won’t be there to stop the plane in case you are late--”

Nero had barely stood up from the sofa when Dante grabbed his wrist and dragged him down again so that he ended somehow straddling the guitarist’s lap. Since they were practically of the same height, Dante had to force Nero’s head down to initiate a long, slow kiss that made a shiver travel down his spine. He settled his hands on Dante’s shoulder, kissing back in the same languid, sensual mood while fighting against the urge of rocking down against Dante, since he could feel the guitarist’s clothed member against his own and the temptation of grinding them together was growing too big to ignore.

“I won’t lie”, Dante began to say against his lips after they stopped, talking with a low, husky tone that made Nero’s member twitch inside his pajama pants, “I’m kind of tempted to screw the sleeping hours and show you what a nice bed is waiting upstairs”

 _Please, yes_ , Nero thought, not very sure if he had said it aloud but not minding it too much. His expression though must have been open enough because Dante seemed to hold an intense inner debate before continuing talking with a calmer tone.

“But it’s late, and probably we have had enough emotions during the day”, Dante hesitated before continuing, “also, remember what I said about Lady being less direct than usual with Nico? When you answered that maybe she was being careful not to screw up?”

Nero felt his heart skip a beat.

“Are you saying that you want to go slow?”

God, he really sucked at hiding what he really thought, because even if he tried to sound neutral, his disappointment must have shown because Dante kept talking with a reasonable tone that did sound a little frustrated, as if he himself was regretting being ‘the mature one’ for once.

“More than going slow, maybe we shouldn’t go so fast”, Nero’s ironic expression indicated that he didn't see the difference, causing Dante to chuckle, “and you can laugh at me if you want kid, but it’s been hella time since I had a remotely serious relationship...”

“Don’t lie, Dante: according to the rest you haven’t had any”

“Okay, _fine_ : besides Trish (who apparently doesn’t count) I have never been in one”, Dante looked up at Nero, waiting for his reaction, “so, do you think we could try?”

After a short pause, Nero exhaled a sigh but almost immediately he nodded. Because it was true that he had hoped that the ending of the night was different, involving Dante and him in a more horizontal position and way more naked, but the man was right: the day had been too full of emotions, beginning with the concert, following by Kyrie’s hospitalization and finishing with the talk about their respective past, which meant that at that moment he, and surely Dante too, were riding an emotional rollercoaster that was surely influencing their respective libido. So, definitely the most reasonable option was to take their good hours of sleep and to assimilate that he and Dante were together now, which was something that he had been craving for quite some time and surely it hadn’t sunk into him yet.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong”, Dante suddenly said, “the offer I made you after the concert still stands, and I’ve been fighting against the urge of pinning you against this sofa since we have sat on it”

“Dante, saying _those_ things is not the best way to convince me to ‘not going so fast’”

The guitarist exhaled an apologetic laugh when hearing Nero’s half joking tone.

“Sorry, not my best move. But hey: at least taking our time will allow me to do a proper research before doing anything”, Dante winked playfully, “I have to live up my reputation after all”

Nero was aware that Dante surely had the right to boast about his bed skills, but being reminded about the guitarist’s more than active sex life made him adopt a purposely forgetful tone before talking next.

“Oh, yeah, I almost forget you’re a virgin when talking about gay sex”, Nero patted Dante’s shoulder twice, changing to a reassuring tone that made the man half-close his eyes, his confident expression from before replaced by slight annoyance, “but don’t worry: since it will be your first time, I will lower my expectations--”

Nero didn’t see it coming when Dante brusquely changed their positions so that his back ended against the sofa seats, the guitarist looming over him with a predatory expression that made Nero automatically hold his breath. He had just time to see Dante’s eyes shining with fierceness before the guitarist descended on him, attaching his lips to the side of Nero’s sensitive neck while his warm hands slipped under his pajama t-shirt to begin to ascend in a teasing, feathery movement that made Nero unable to prevent a needy whine, body arching and hands gripping at Dante’s shoulder for dear life.

Fuck.

If doubting Dante’s abilities was going to cause that kind of reactions, he would never stop doing it.

“Not bad for a ‘virgin’, hah?”, Dante purred against his ear before nipping his earlobe, making Nero shudder again and curse an excited ‘ _Shit_ ’ before turning his head to devour Dante’s mouth with hunger, his flat stomach clenching when Dante’s hands kept with his torturing slow travel towards his chest.

This time, when the mobile sounded again, they both jumped startled, being about to fall from the sofa in the process.

“Damn, definitely I’m changing the ringtone”

Nero began to laugh while still lying on the sofa when Dante snapped those words, straightening his position in order to reach for the noisy device. Nero sat up as well with his legs in a Buda position while Dante reviewed the tickets Vergil had sent him.

“Okay, it’s official: tomorrow the Demon Twins are visiting their mum together”

Despite Dante’s attempt of sounding carefree, Nero detected some nervousness in the guitarist’s voice, which prompted him to speak again, this time with a real reassuring tone.

“It will go okay. And remember: instead of going to your mother with a shitty ‘Sorry’, go tell her the things that are _really_ interesting. Like you having found the best possible handyman ever”

Dante laughed while still typing an answer to Vergil.

“Was going to say ‘boyfriend’ but yeah, I guess handyman also applies”

Nero honestly admired his own capacity of restraint, because when Dante addressed him with that appellative so naturally, he really had to fight the impulse to crawl on Dante’s lap to kiss him idiot.

After Dante finished answering Vergil, they both finally stood up from the sofa in order to go towards the first floor. They climbed the stairs in silence and stopped when they were in front of Dante’s bedroom, since the room was situated immediately after stairs ended.

“I would invite you inside, but I don’t think it’s clever if we want to get some actual sleep”

Nero snorted softly and nodded in silence, completely agreeing with Dante because if they had been about to lose control some moments ago when, theoretically, they had already agreed on taking things with calm, he didn’t want to imagine what would happen if they ended in an actual bed.

“Yeah, probably not”, he scratched the back of his head before looking at the guitarist, hesitating about what he was going to ask, “will you warn me when you arrive there?”

Dante immediately nodded, which put Nero at ease.

“Sure. Also…”, Nero frowned when Dante entered his room suddenly, exiting some seconds later with something he initially didn't identify in his hand, “...you can have this”

Nero’s eyes opened more when Dante placed a key in his hand.

“I guess tomorrow you will spend the day with Kyrie, so maybe it’s best for you to sleep here again. To be closer and avoid bus traffic as V said, you know”

Dante had talked with a light tone that didn’t manage to fool Nero, since considering that the guitarist hadn’t brought anyone to his house in quite a long time, the fact he was giving him a spare key was more important than Dante was letting show.

“So giving me already your house keys”, Nero smirked playfully, “isn’t this going a little fast?”

Dante exhaled a slow, deep breath, leaning forward until his lips were brushing Nero’s ones.

“Go to sleep before I show you what’s going fast”

Nero knew he was being a shitty brat but there was no way he didn’t replied after hearing Dante’s sexy, threatening tone.

“Is that an offer?”

“ _Nero…_ ”

This one chuckled, innerly proud for having made Dante sound close to exasperated for once.

“Roger”, Nero smiled again, this time without any kind of provocation, “good night, Dante”

Dante’s answer was to smile back before initiating an intense kiss that Nero obviously followed. Inevitably, they began to get carried away again, so it was that Dante the one who, reluctantly, put a stop to it, saying a softer than usual ‘ _Rest well, Nero_ ’ that made this one’s stomach flutter.

Needless to say, the wide smile that that last kiss had put on his face kept being in place when he entered the guest room and lied on the bed under the fluffy covers, and lasted even after the exhaustion of the day finally reached him, making him fall into a deep, pleasant sleep which lasted until late in the afternoon of the next day.

* * *

When Nero woke up around the 12.30 a.m. it was due to the sound of the doorbell ringing loudly. During the first seconds he felt lost for waking up in a foreign bed in a foreign house, but it didn’t take him much to remember what had happened the previous night, the memories causing a nice warm settle in his body.

However, he hadn’t much time to rejoice in the fact that Dante and him were actually together because at that moment the doorbell rang again, for a longer time than before.

Nero abandoned the bed in a hurry, not having even time to put his slippers on. When he passed in front of Dante’s room he caught a glimpse of the guitarist’s unmade, empty bed. He wasn’t surprised for not having realized when Dante left because his sleep was usually pretty deep and last night particularly he had slept like a baby.

When he was finally on the main floor Nero opened the door without even checking who it was. The person outside resulted to be a delivery woman, all dressed up and with an evident excess of make-up, and whose enthusiastic smile faltered a little when seeing Nero there, which made this one think that she had hoped to see someone else there (a.k.a. Dante).

“Good afternoon”, she talked with a professional, polite tone that managed to mask almost completely her disappointment, while handling a rather big bag to Nero, “please, enjoy your order”

Nero had barely taken the bag when the woman added a simple ‘ _It’s been paid beforehand_ ’ before walking away towards the corridor’s elevator. Nero remained with the door opened and with a confused expression in his face for some seconds before finally closing it, approaching next to the living room’s table. He left the bag on it and his eyes opened in stupor when seeing several take-out food boxes inside.

He placed them on the table to open them as well, and when seeing their [content](https://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ihop-1-625x352.jpeg) he finally understood what had happened. He reached for his mobile again, verifying he had some unread messages from Dante:

_> > **Dante (6:45 a.m.)** \- hey there kid ;)_

_> > **Dante (6:46 a.m.)** \- I ordered some breakfast 4u_

_> > **Dante (6:46 a.m.)** \- it was the only place opened tdy so hope its enough ^^U_

_> > **Dante (6:47 a.m.)** \- w r about 2 leave now_

_> > **Dante (6:47 a.m.)** \- and Vergil s glaring at m for keeping typing_

_> > **Dante (6:47 a.m.)** \- so cu on saturday ;)_

 

The smile that was already in Nero’s face accentuated even more when reading the guitarist’s words. It would take Dante and Vergil another couple of hours at least to arrive at Russia, but he nevertheless answered with a single ‘Thx’ followed by a smiling emoji, that last thing being rather infrequent because he wasn’t a particular fan of sending messages and always wrote as simple as possible.

After finishing with the rather complete breakfast, Nero dressed with the change of clothes he had inside his bag. He checked twice that the apartment was well closed before leaving the building in order to go to the hospital. It was true that being close to the place had been kind of an excuse plotted by V, but he couldn’t deny it was handy to be that close because in less than 15 minutes he was in front of Kyrie’s room, whose door was opened allowing Nero to see his friends without entering.

Kyrie was sitting up on the bed with her laptop leaning on the place devoted to leave her food tray, her look extremely concentrated. Meanwhile, V was sitting on the armchair next to her bed with his legs crossed, sustaining a book with his left hand while talking notes in a paper leaning on a folder against his knee with the other, and Nero couldn’t help to envy the man because he was pretty sure he wouldn’t look that good after spending a surely restless night at the hospital. But well, the guy had always had a talent in looking good no matter the situation.

Nero didn’t enter immediately, trying to come up with a neutral expression that didn’t betray him because, for once, he would like to be able to give his friends the news without them finding out on their own.

Obviously, it was not that day.

Because the moment he stepped inside the room V and Kyrie’s heads snapped upwards while digging their eyes on him inquisitively, so there was no way that he could keep an imperturbable expression after seeing such a funny reaction.

“Oh my god, oh my god”, Kyrie began, her already big eyes opening even more while a knowing grin appeared in V’s face, “does that mean--?”

Nero showed a defeated smile, deciding that it had been a wishful thinking to expect that his friends didn’t notice his extremely good mood.

“Yeah. We are going out”

Once again, Kyrie managed to surpass her record of high-pitched shout when hearing his comment. She began to flap in the air enthusiastically like a crazy hen, and Nero interpreted that gesture correctly by approaching the bed so that Kyrie hugged him by his waist with force.

“Congratulations!! I’m so happy for you!!”

He chuckled when hearing Kyrie’s happy tone before looking at V, who had momentarily set his book aside to look at Nero mockingly.

“Enlighten me, Nero: who said it was a _terrible_ idea to attend that audition?”

He rolled his eyes while Kyrie began to laugh.

“You are never gonna stop reminding me that, right?”

“Oh, yes, I will”, he raised a skeptic eyebrow, but as he suspected V hadn’t finished, “in about 10 years, in retaliation for standing so many unrequited crush tantrums”

Nero thought that calling his past ramblings about Dante ‘tantrums’ was a little excessive, but decided not to point that out. Because the truth was that without V’s help, he doubted he would have ever meet _Devil May Cry_ , and much less to be dating Dante.

 _Dating Dante_.

God, the sound of that still felt strange but he planned to get used to it.

“Fair enough”, he eventually said with a grateful smile, separating from Kyrie in order to bring a chair closer to the bed, in the opposite side where V was.

“So, how it was?”, Kyrie began to shoot when Nero had barely sat on it, “as good as expected? Or even better? I hope it wasn’t worse because you were looking so forward to it. And who confessed first? Because you confessed, right? Was it you? No, I bet it was him. And how--?”

“Damn, Kyrie: shouldn’t you take it easy? The doctor said you shouldn’t force your voice yet--”

“Then stop wasting time and talk, you silly! And don’t you dare to leave anything out: I want _all_ the details”

V’s mere ‘support’ when Nero looked at him with impotence after Kyrie began to impatiently pull at his arm consisted of shrugging while smirking, clearly enjoying Nero’s martyred expression and not having the least intention of helping him. It took him almost an hour to explain what happened after Dante and he left the hospital, mainly because Kyrie’s promises about not interrupting him once he began to talk were lost in the process, and obviously, all his attempts of reducing the level of detail when he finally reached to the kiss part couldn’t be more fruitless.

“...and then he kissed me”, he stopped right there on purpose, suppressing a laugh when seeing the way Kyrie pouted before crossing her arms tightly in front of her chest.

“That’s not enough and you know it”, Kyrie protested sulkily, “where were you? Still on the sofa? And how it was? A peck on the lips or a kiss _kiss?_ ”

“With tongue or without?”

“Seriously, V?”, Nero almost whimpered when the poet intervened with his usual smooth tone, causing Kyrie to giggle before looking at Nero expectantly.

“Yes, that too. And also…”, Kyrie’s tone became a little mischievous, “...he kissed as well as V or--?”

Nero groaned in exasperation, burying his face between his crossed arms on the bed while Kyrie chuckled and ruffled his hair playfully. He didn’t need to look at the poet to perfectly imagine this one’s condescending amusement. Shit, definitely it had been a mistake to confess to Kyrie back then that, among all the people he had been with, V definitely had taken the cake in the kissing department.

“God, okay”, he began to say in a muffled tone before raising his head again, beginning to answer all the previous questions in order, “yes, we were on the sofa; yes, it was a kiss _kiss_ ; yes, there was tongue involved; and absolutely _yes_ , he is at least as good as V. You both happy now?”

“Very. And thanks for the compliment”

Nero snorted when hearing V’s ironic reply while Kyrie laughed again.

“And…”, Kyrie looked at him expectantly, “...did you--?”

Nero understood what his friend was going to ask without her needing to finish the sentence.

“No. It was really late and he had to take an early plane so we decided to sleep”, after some seconds, he continued with a tone that came up suspiciously emphatic, “also, we are planning to take it slow”

Nero wasn’t expecting the silence that followed next, neither the way V and Kyrie burst out laughing at the same time.

“Hey, I’m serious!”, Nero exclaimed, frowning offended for the lack of faith his friends seemed to have in his resolve.

“Oh, yes, I’m sure you are”, V managed to say after calming down, while Kyrie dried the tears of laughter from her eyes with delicacy, “but forgive us for doubting your capacity of controlling your basic impulses”

“What?! I can _perfectly_ control my impulses”

“Oh, can you?”

V’s tone warned Nero that the poet was very much planning to give several examples in order to refute his previous statement, so he rapidly changed the subject: partly because he didn’t want to fight an already lost battle, but mainly because he was really interested in the answer that he was going to obtain.

“Anyway, how is the search of the new shelter going?”

Kyrie surprised him with a bright smile.

“Good! We have managed to find something that fulfills all our needs”

“What? Already?”, he exclaimed while Kyrie typed something on her laptop.

“Yes, my friends barely slept that night because they wanted to find a new place as soon as possible. And they found a man who owns a rather big land with different individual parcels, so we would be renting one of those”

Kyrie turned her laptop towards Nero in order to show him the [place](http://hudsonvalleyone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/WFAS-HZT.jpg) she was talking about.

“Wow, it looks really nice”, Nero looked at Kyrie, “but how much?”

Kyrie hummed to herself while returning her laptop to its original position.

“Well, the monthly rent is a little more expensive that what we used to pay, but the problem is that we have to pay an initial deposit covering the first two months”, Kyrie began to enumerate with her fingers, “also, our insurance of the previous shelter didn’t cover all the materials that were lost in the fire, so we need to replenish the ones that are missing. Also, we have to contact with a lawyer so that they help us with all the paperwork and the licenses, since we have to renew the last ones for being in a new place. Oh! And the car we used to rescue was lost in the fire as well and such an expense is not covered, so will need to buy another one”

Nero gulped when Kyrie finally stopped talking.

“And how much is all that?”

“Around 40,000S”

“Holy _FUCK_ ”

V hushed at him with patience, making Nero remember he was in a hospital.

“Yes, it’s a lot”, Kyrie confirmed with a little pained expression, “my friends have talked with the owner already and he has agreed on saving us the place for one week, so in that time we have to know for sure if we can afford it”

“I’ve suggested to ask for donations”, V intervened, although his reluctant expression said it all, “but the sum of money they need is considerable, so I’m not positive that they can obtain a relevant quantity in time”

“Yes, but it’s better than nothing! And I mean, at least the animals are fine in my friend’s farm for now. It’s a temporary solution of course, but at least it gives us some margin in case we can’t eventually get this place”, Kyrie said with a sincere animated tone that made Nero admire her optimism.

He averted his eyes, thinking. He hadn’t got his first payment from working in _Devil May Cry_ yet, but he would be getting it in the following days so maybe he could contribute to the donation in some way--

“Don’t you dare, Nero”

His eyes opened wide looking at Kyrie, who was looking at him with a threatening expression that, somehow, managed to keep being sweet.

“But I haven’t said anything!”

“You don’t need to: I won’t accept any money coming from you, or from V. I will be invading your apartment already and that’s enough help”

Nero was about to protest when seeing V shake his head.

“I’ve tried already, but you know we cannot compete against her stubbornness”

He exhaled a resigned sigh, leaning back against his chair while crossing his arms. He was going to suggest nevertheless to help with whatever installation they needed in case Kyrie and her friends managed to get the building when his mobile began to sound.

“Your boyfriend?”, V asked with a teasing tone, and Nero managed to suppress in time a probably dumb smile when hearing that appellative again before shaking his head.

“Nope, his ex”, he stood up and abandoned the room despite Kyrie’s protest before finally picking up the call, “hey, Trish”

“ _Good afternoon, Nero. I hope not having woken you up_ ”

“No no, I was in the hospital with Kyrie and V”, Nero reassured the woman immediately, causing this one to exhale a relieved sigh.

She asked then about Kyrie, and when she inquired if he had been able to get any rest, Nero realized that Dante and him hadn’t talked anything about telling the others about their relationship. In fact, now that he thought about it, they hadn’t commented either if Dante planned to make it public or not, the mere thought of him appearing in the tabloids as the boyfriend of the _Devil May Cry_ guitarist causing a shiver travel by his body, and not of the good kind because like hell if he was ready to enter the famous world like that.

“ _Nero? Are you still there?”_

He realized he had got lost in his thoughts and that he hadn’t answered Trish’s question yet. He was surprised when soon later the woman thanked him too for having convinced Dante to join Vergil in his trip. However, since she didn’t seem to know about him and Dante, he decided not to give more details either until talking with the last.

“ _Well, I should be going_ ”, Trish eventually with a tired tone, “ _just wanted to check on you but soon it will be my turn to be interviewed and should be getting ready”_

“What? But I thought you had the whole day to rest”

“ _Yes,_ _we thought that too, but the organizers of the concert asked us for this favor and we were dumb enough not to refuse_ ”, Trish gasped softly at that moment, “ _oh, and before I forget: tomorrow afternoon we have a meeting with Lucia. Do you think you will be able to come?_ ”

“Yeah, no problem. Another fashion parade?”

Trish chuckled.

“ _Almost: the brand she has been working with lately has asked her to promote the new clothes, and Lucia needs ideas about what to do. We have agreed to help her like the last time but we’ll need to brainstorm_. _Also…”,_ Trish’s tone turned hesitant, _“I know that, as always, we’re asking too but do you think it would be possible to count with V’s pets?_ ”

Nero frowned with confusion.

“Yeah, I guess, but for what?”

“ _Well, Lucia says that using animals in photo shoots has become quite fashionable and she’s really interested in taking pictures with them. However, we are aware it could be considered as a way of animal abuse, since we could be encouraging other people to capture exotic animals to gain profit, so we have to be careful about how to approach it”_

As Trish talked, Nero’s eyes and mouth ended gradually more and more opened as an idea began to form in his mind.

“When is the photo shoot planned?”, Nero interrupted Trish, causing the woman to sound rather surprised when talking next.

“ _For this Saturday_ ”

Nero smiled widely. That left them with that afternoon and the whole next day to prepare everything for the weekend. It would be complicated, and probably a little stressing, but it could be done.

“ _Nero?_ ”

“Yeah, still here”, he didn’t bother to hide his enthusiasm when talking next, “and I know exactly what we are going to do that day”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the title was a fake, sorry (not sorry) hehehe. Also **spoiler** : like _HELL_ if they are going to go slow xDD We've had enough slow burn already so sorry for Dante and Nero's pure intentions, but they will be succumbing for their respective hostness soon enough ;)


	14. Taming some beasts

During his first trip with the group, Nero thought that the ruckus inside the van couldn’t be surpassed by anything…

_**CRASH**!_

“V!! If that chicken of yours has broken something else ‘m gonna cook it!”

“No, I’m afraid it was Nero’s fault this time”

“ _What_?! That’s a lie! It’s been your damn panther!”

“Maybe, but _you_ were supposedly controlling him”

“And _you_ too, you traitor, so don’t try to put all the blame on m--Kyrie, sit down”

“But Nero, I--”

“SIT _DOWN_. You should be in the hospital so like hell if you are leaving the sofa to--”

“Nero, I need to _pee_!”

“Then by all means go, dear--Nico, w-what are you doing with that gun?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Trish: I just want to intimidate that chicke-- _OUCH_!! He _bit_ me!”

“I forgot to tell he does not take threats too well. And as an advice, I don’t think that you can use the verb ‘bite’ considering birds don’t have teeth--”

“V, man, not helping”

“Alright, kids, can you _please_ calm down a little? I’m trying to drive here. Which way, Lady?”

“Zzzz…”

“ _Lady!_?”

“H-Huh? O-Oh, sorry, Morrison: I dozed off. Wait a second, let me see…SHIT, we are going in opposite direction!”

“Oh my god, I’m really too old for this”

 

...he was mistaken.

That Saturday they were driving towards the farm where the animals of Kyrie’s shelter were provisionally living, and the trip was without a doubt way more chaotic than the last. The main reason for that was that Nico had insisted that there wasn’t any problem in taking Shadow and Griffon with them despite V had been rather reluctant about the idea. Eventually though the poet agreed to it on the condition of him also travelling with them, but not even his presence, which usually put the animals at ease, managed to prevent Nico and Griffon from spending the entire trip respectively cawing and shouting at each other, the bird’s animadversion towards the woman being even bigger than towards Nero.

So, even if the farm was far more closer than the city they visited for the Halloween concert because it just took a couple of hours to be there, by when they arrived at their destination Nero felt as if the trip had been twice as long, since he had to take turns in helping V control Shadow so that he didn’t scratch the already broken enough furniture, while keeping watch on Kyrie to make sure that the woman didn’t force herself too much. And he was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one feeling tired as hell, because Trish had devoted all her energies to uselessly try to put some peace between the animals (yes, Nero included Nico in the animals category now) while Lady managed to get Morrison lost with almost each turn of direction she insisted him to make, provoking that they arrived at the [farm](https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/08/27/15/49/quilt-2686511_1280.jpg) almost an hour later that the appointed time.

“Finally”, Morrison exhaled, saying aloud what everyone was thinking when the car stopped and the lateral door opened.

Shadow and Griffon were the first ones in leaving it in a hurry and Nero rapidly went after the panther, not because he was afraid of the feline hurting someone, but because it wasn’t normal to have such a big, wild animal around and watching him running freely could be a motive for a heart-attack for some people.

However, he had just stepped down of the van when noticing that Lucia was already there, and that in fact the woman was kneeling next to the panther, petting him without any worry.

“Oh my god, you are so beautiful! I’m going to take a lot of pictures with you”, the woman was saying with an enthusiastic tone as the rest approached.

“Sorry, Lucia”, as usual, it was Trish the one who apologized in everyone’s name, “the trip was more accidental than expected”

“Oh, I’m sure it was if you let Lady guide Morrison”, she said with resigned amusement, looking at Lady abandon the car with an upside-down map in her hands, looking at it with a frown as if she wasn’t understanding how she could have given Morrison the wrong indications.

At that moment Kyrie stepped out of the car accepting the hand V automatically offered her as a help, and while the others introduced her to Lucia, Nero took a look at his surroundings. Since it was November already it was really cold, and Lucia had commented the previous day that he planned to take most part of the pictures inside, in the barn next to the main building where an improvised photography studio had been installed provisionally after the owners of the farm assured them they could do anything they needed. However, the outside views were so pretty that he doubted she could contain herself from taking outside pictures.

Also, even if Lucia’s initial plan was just to take pictures of _Devil May Cry_ for the brand she had been temporarily hired for, it had occurred to Nero they could kill two birds with one stone if Lucia also filmed some footage of the group with the animals, in order to encourage people to donate to Kyrie’s shelter, and also to the other animal welfare organizations of Red Grave. That way, no one would be able to protest against _Devil May Cry_ exploiting animals, since they were making use of their fame for a good cause, and Kyrie’s possibilities of renting the new place would be higher, so everyone won,

“Alright everyone, head inside”, Lucia said then clapping her hands twice, effectively claiming the rest’s attention, “there’s been a change of schedule and we will begin with filming the footage for the video, to make the most of the daylight hours”

Everyone followed her towards the barn while Morrison and Kyrie went to the main house to talk to the owners, the first to personally say thank you and the second just to say hi and also see her friend. Nero noticed with amusement how Nico kept throwing threatening glances at Griffon that, funnily, the bird seemed to return while being posed in V’s arm. Meanwhile Shadow had taken quite a liking for Lucia because he was walking beside her, purring while the woman absentmindedly rubbed his head is if being with a panther was an everyday thing for her.

“Nero”, the named one turned to his right, finding Trish next to him with a smile, “thank you again. You had a great idea by suggesting doing this collaboration”

Nero couldn’t help a wide smile from appearing in his face, because it certainly felt nice to have come up with such a (modesty apart) good solution, his proud reaction making Trish chuckle and press softly his shoulder in affectionate gesture.

“Hey, Lu”, at that moment Lady loudly approached Lucia, hooking an arm around the woman’s shoulder making her almost trip over, “have you had news from the guys?”

Lady’s question was answered without Lucia needing to say anything when a couple of familiar arguing voices sounded, causing Nero’s eyes open wide as his heart beat faster.

“Hey hey hey, stop right there, brother: you have chosen the most cool-looking vest so it’s my turn to choose the coat”

“Please, that one doesn’t suit your ‘style’ at all. _This_ is more appropriate”

“Like hell! I will look like an old man with it”

“Dante, must I remind you that you have reached certain age already?”

“And must I remind you we are twins, you idiot? And that you are the oldest?”

“Yes, but it’s evident who has aged better”

“You damn--”

The twins stopped arguing when everyone entered, Dante being the first in reacting by raising his arm in a greeting way while saying a cheery ‘ _Hey there_ ’.

“But what are you doing here already? We thought you’d be back this afternoon”, Trish said with a surprised smile.

Nero almost missed Vergil’s explanation about taking an earlier plane, neither he paid attention to the good work Lucia’s team had done the previous day by preparing the improvised [studio](http://www.loftstudios.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Studio1_01_NEW_lowres-720x576.jpg) inside the barn, around which they had settled heaters to make the room extremely warm so that the group weren’t cold when changing outfits: his attention was exclusively focused on Dante, since Lucia’s love for costumes had struck once again and now the twins were dressed as some kind of cowboys, and of course, Dante’s white, loose shirt had to be half-opened, revealing too much unnecessary (but definitely welcome to see) skin that Nero very much desired to taste and mark with his teeth.

Before his thoughts turned more explicit, he exhaled a soft sigh to try to calm down, since he hadn’t talked to Dante about how to tell the others about being together yet, or if the guitarist preferred to wait until things were more established before saying anything, so looking at him in that way could be rather suspicious if they eventually decided to keep silent about the whole matter...

“Sorry, kid”, Nero’s train of thoughts was interrupted when Dante began to walk towards him with a teasing smile, “I’d have warned you but I preferred it to be a surprise”

Definitely it had been one, and Nero just got the second when Dante settled his hands on his hips and leaned forward to open-mouth kiss him as a greeting, as if it was the most natural thing to do. He was quick to respond to the unexpected but pleasant greeting though, eyes fluttering close when Dante rolling his tongue inside his mouth made his mind go momentarily blank. He couldn’t suppress a contented sigh from escaping him when the guitarist put some distance between them although still holding his hips, and just then he noticed the uncharacteristic silence that had fallen in the barn.

He turned to look at the rest, finding all of them staring at them with dumbfounded expressions except Vergil, who was making the most of his brother being distracted to take for himself the coat Dante had insisted on having, and V, who was pointing his mobile at Nero and Dante with a small amused grin.

“Alright…”, Trish began with a calm tone that threatened to snap into a much-less-calmer one at any moment, “...do we have to pretend that this is normal and that there’s nothing weird about it, or have you _finally_ figured things out?”

Dante frowned, confused, before looking at Nero.

“Wait, haven’t you told them?”

“Eh, no?!”, Nero snapped as if it was obvious, “you know them for way longer than I do, so I thought you’d be the one in--”

Nero’s sentence ended with a breathless huff when suddenly Nico jumped on him from behind while shouting a loud ‘ _Congratulations!_ ’ that left him deaf, while Lady also approached him to half hug him while ruffling his hair in a rather dog-like way.

At least, he wasn’t the only one suffering from the girls’ effusiveness because Dante had just been cornered by Trish and Lucia, causing the grown-ass man looking suddenly scared while his ex's took turns in talking.

“You better behave with Nero, Dante”

“H-Hey now, I don’t think I was such a bad boyfriend--”

“For starters remember that treating someone from time to time is nice”

“Come on, Lucia, you sound like I never treated to anything!”

“McDonalds doesn’t count, honey”

“But it wasn't my fault there were discounts there and--”

“And also take note of important dates. Like anniversaries”

“God, Trish, I only forgot about it once”

“No, dear, you _remembered_ it once”

“...Really?”

“And speaking of celebrations, sex is never a replacement for a proper present”

“Tsk, you talk as if you didn’t enjoy that nigh--”

_“And talking of previous affairs is also forbidden!”_

_“And talking of previous affairs is also forbidden!”_

“Nero, please, _help_ ”

Before Nero could respond to Dante’s pleading demand, the door opened again and Morrison and Kyrie stepped inside.

“Well, it seems you cannot stay five minutes without causing a ruckus”, the man said with a resigned smile while Kyrie looked at everyone with confusion.

“What’s happened?"

“Not much”, V finally intervened, “you only missed the reunion kiss”

“That I missed _what_?! That’s not fair!”

“Don't worry: I have the video right here”

“Niiice ♥”

“That you have _WHAT,_ V!?”

“A video of you and Dante engrossed in kissing”

“God, it was rhetorical, you idiot!”

“Rhetorical? I’m proud of you, Nero: your vocabulary is finally improving”

Nero felt a wave of satisfaction when V’s eyes opened wide, not expecting that he began to run towards him. At least in physical ability he had the upper hand and the poet wasn’t fast enough to put his mobile safe, so Nero could easily take it from his hands.

“Noooo!”, but he wasn’t fast enough to delete the video before Kyrie grabbed his arms, looking at him with rather effective puppy eyes, “please, can I see it at least once? I’m still recovering and my house burned, you can’t deny the petition of a sick, probably-soon-broke woman, right~?”

“What the fuck, Kyrie, that’s playing dirty!”, Nero snapped in disbelief, causing Kyrie to smile innocently while the others laughed.

“It’s your fault for having been such a bad influence all my life”, she retorted, with a fond tone that contrasted with her comment and that caused Nero to eventually fulfill her petition and show her the video before deleting it, even if the way she exclaimed a completely sincere ‘ _Aww_ ’ made him blush slightly with embarrassment.

After everyone finally calmed down, the women went to the area of the barn that acted as provisional changing room. Kyrie also accompanied them to help them get changed while V had found a looking calming spot and was reading one of his multiple books, leaning against one of the walls with Shadow lying down on the floor next to him, Griffon posed in one of the closest windows. Morrison, as usual, had disappeared to do one of his multiple calls, so that left Nero with Lucia and the twins. However, since the woman had ‘kidnapped’ a sulking Dante (who had just realized Vergil had taken the coat he wanted) to give his outfit the last touch, Nero decided to approach the bassist about something that had been rounding his head since practically the beginning.

“Hey, Vergil”

The man looked at him, raising an eyebrow with curiosity since it wasn’t something common that Nero approached him.

“Thanks. For helping Dante and I ending together I mean. If it wasn’t for some things you did maybe we would still be behaving like idiots. So, thanks”

After some seconds, Vergil’s more or less expected reaction was to click his tongue before talking with his usual cutting tone.

“Well, as I said before Dante is reaching certain age, and fooling around was becoming way too pathetic to witness so when I saw the chance of him being serious with someone who was half-decent, I couldn’t waste it”, Vergil half-closed his eyes at Nero when seeing this one smile a little for the compliment, “but don’t let it go to your head, Nero. With the exception of Trish and Lucia, my brother’s standards related to the choice of his companies has always been questionable to say the least, so it wasn’t _that_ difficult to surpass them”

Nero snorted softly when hearing Vergil’s last sharp comment, but the smile was still in his face when talking next.

“Understood. But still, thank you”, he added, causing Vergil to show the brief hint of a smirk before it vanished as fast as it appeared.

“Well, well, it seems that the coat wasn’t so bad after all”

Nero turned around when hearing Dante behind him, and had to agree with the guitarist because Lucia had managed to adjust the coat to the man’s body in a way that it looked tailor-made.

“See?”, Vergil had the nerve to say, “I told you it suited you”

Dante rolled his eyes while Vergil and him changed positions: the older twin going to Lucia so that the woman approved his outfit and Dante remaining with Nero.

“So, how do I look?”, Dante inquired settling his hands on his hips, his satisfied smirk clearly saying he knew _exactly_ how he looked.

For that reason, Nero hummed to himself, pretending he wasn’t sure about the answer even if he thought the guitarist looked hot as fuck in that modern-cowboy outfit. It didn’t take him much to come up with a suitable reply, that he proceeded to say with a casual, low tone so that just Dante heard him.

“Well, you look ready for a ride”

The comment itself wasn’t particularly dirty, but for the way Dante’s eyes glinted and how his smile widened, Nero knew that the guitarist had understood his innuendo in the right way. He realized too late that maybe saying that kind of things when they had decided to take things with calm wasn’t very clever, but for the way Dante’s tone lowered an octave before talking, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one in forgetting about that.

“Oh, yes. I wonder what kind of beast I will have to mount”

Even if Nero was expecting a reply of a sexual nature, the guitarist’s blunt choice of words made him feel the tip of his ear burning as an embarrassed laugh escaped him, causing Dante to chuckle before depositing a kick kiss on his cheek.

“Sorry, kid you still can’t beat the ‘Master of innuendos’”, Dante winked at him, “but you’re getting better at it, so keep trying”

Nero half-closed his eyes at Dante when this one used a lilting patronizing tone, but at that moment Lucia and Vergil joined them again and when Dante exclaimed a nonchalant ‘ _Well, time to work_ ’ before kissing him briefly, he couldn’t keep being annoyed anymore.

As it usually happened with all the events in which _Devil May Cry_ was involved, recording the footage wasn’t as simple as Lucia had made it sound, although it was way funnier Nero had expected.

For starters, when working with two of the horses the family had adopted after rescuing them from participating in brutal races, it took way too much to make the animals stay still enough so that Lucia could take the typical picture of Dante and Vergil staring at the horizon while sitting elegantly on them. However, Lucia took a bunch of photos in which Vergil managed to pose decently while Dante’s horse, the most rebellious apparently, kept refusing to cooperate causing that Dante appeared in all the pictures with a desperate face because he didn’t know what the hell to do to make the animal cooperate. At least, Dante’s suffering allowed the woman to also take the rare picture of Vergil laughing openly at his brother, being such a thing so peculiar to see that Lady and Trish also took some pictures of the bassist discreetly.

After that, Lucia also took some photos with the ladies and the animals of the shelter. Trish’s past as a model showed again when posing with one of the two [owls](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/45/4b/d9454b985bc686a2eb1957cb053e3b3a.jpg) Kyrie had rescued, the drums player not needing to put any effort in looking stunning no matter the angle of the pose. Lucia was able to take really nice pictures of Lady as well, with the last animal they had acquired: a [deer](https://previews.123rf.com/images/kuzmichstudio/kuzmichstudio1605/kuzmichstudio160500023/58299471-young-beautiful-woman-hugging-animal-roe-deer-in-the-sunshine-protecting-an-animal.jpg) that was rather shy but that got along with Lady immediately. Finally, the animal that became Nico’s companion was a one-eyed fox. Initially the animal didn’t want to get close to Nico, his trauma with his previous owner being to recent to easily trust humans, and since forcing the animals to do something they didn’t want was the last of their intentions, Lucia simply took pictures of him and of Nico sitting a little far away. However, eventually the fox seemed to decide that Nico wasn’t a danger, and hesitantly approached the vocalist, going so far to [half lie on her](https://as1.ftcdn.net/jpg/01/42/08/18/1000_F_142081856_renmqKBgzoBimEN2FiYzXdbQ48QTXpJF.jpg).

“Wow, so you can be with an animal without wanting to cook them”, Nero teased, causing Nico to stick her tongue out at him while Griffon cawed from the pole where he was resting, agreeing with Nero for once.

Lucia also took a lot of pictures of the entire group with the rest of the animals: dogs, sheep, lambs and even little pigs. Nero made sure to avoid Lucia as much as he could because the woman insisted that he was too photogenic and it was a pity that he refused to appear in the video, but when one little lamb seemed to mistake him for his mother and began to follow him wherever he went, he couldn’t win against the _‘Awes_ ’ coming from Lucia, Kyrie and even Nico, and agreed to let the woman take one picture with him next to the little animal, that turned into at least twenty because Lucia hit the camera button as if her life depended on it. It was rather impossible to make Griffon pose with anyone who wasn’t V, so one of the times the poet was distracted Lucia made sure to sneak a picture when Griffon decided to pose in his [arm](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/41800000/V-devil-may-cry-41806786-500-280.gif).

Also, at some point Vergil commented that Dante had to pose with the pigs because he would be in his natural habitat, and as if the animals had somehow understood the bassist, from then on it was impossible to make them pose with anyone else who wasn’t the guitarist, since they just felt comfortable around him. Nero honestly considered himself a rather supportive boyfriend, but he couldn’t help to burst out laughing with the rest when seeing the expression of deep resignation of the man while sitting outside the barn and surrounded by five small, rather cute pigs: two of them at his feet playfully biting his boots, one grunting happily in his lap, one in his hand and another on the top of his head.

“Love, haven’t you finished yet?”, Dante asked for hundredth time with patience while the animal moved his snout rhythmically against the top of his head, which obviously didn’t help the others to calm down and neither Lucia to finish sooner, because the woman’s shoulders were trembling so much with laugher that her pictures came all blurred, forcing Dante to keep in that position for way more time than necessary.

After keeping torturing Dante for almost another 15 minutes, everyone made a one-hour stop in the main building to have some lunch that the family had prepared, after which the second part of the photographic session began, this time inside the barn.

“Alright, everyone, all the clothes you are going to wear have been tagged right there”

Lucia signaled a table situated at the other side of the barn while she prepared the camera on the tripod with Nero’s help, after he saw her struggling in doing so.

“Thanks, sweetheart”, she said him with a smile when they finished getting it ready, before addressing the others again, “so we’ll do it like the last time: I will hit play right now and I will begin calling for you. When I do so, you step in the area, pose however you like and then I will take the pictures. You can make use of the [armchair](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/008/028/346/large/natalia-kogan-sofa1-2.jpg?1510015907) Kyrie’s friends have kindly lent us or not, whatever you feel comfortable with. Also, V…”, Lucia turned to look at the poet, who had come back to his lecture, “...do you think we could take pictures with Shadow now?”

Instead of responding V simply looked at the panther before softly signaling towards the photoshoot area with his head. The panther yawned before slowly walking towards the armchair with heavy steps, the fact that she had eaten quite a lot making him more obedient than usual.

“Great!”, Lucia said clapping her hands happily, before finally turning the camera on while Nero sat on the floor next to it with his legs crossed, remembering with a smile that the last time he played the audience role Dante and him weren’t together yet, “okay, guys, here we go!”

During the following half-an-hour Shadow behaved way better than expected, allowing all the members of the band to pose with him in different forms: Trish kneeling next to him and rubbing his head; Lady riding him as if he was a horse; Nico behind him with his arms leaned on his back; Vergil sitting on the armchair with his legs crossed, his chin leaning on one hand, and the other languidly hanging from the other side to barely touch the panther’s head in a pose that couldn’t be more arrogant even if trying; and Dante sitting next to the animal and enclosing his arm around him as if they were best buddies, thumbing up at the camera in a childish way that made Nero snort and facepalm.

“What?”, Dante inquired when seeing Nero’s reaction, causing this one to shake his head.

“Nothing”, he made a mocking ‘okay’ gesture, “a very mature picture”

Nero’s comment just intended to make fun of Dante as usual, so he wasn’t expecting the seductive smirk that appeared in the man’s face.

“Well, if you wanted it M-rating you just had to ask, babe”

Nero hadn’t had time to protest against the appellative because at that moment his throat went dry when Dante casually settled his hands on the [denim shirt with pop-up buttons](https://images.vinted.net/thumbs/f800/03eaf_TuMpkUeZfgAco5TzZpVdNDA8.jpeg?1541258965%2404fc27319cbed377117d4faa6f9bbfb5e77b970d) he was wearing and, in a fluent movement, he snapped it open revealing his whole upper body, making all Nero’s blood travel south since Dante hadn’t stopped staring at him playfully while doing so.

“Show off!”, Lady and Nico shouted at the same time while Trish shook his head with a smile and Vergil rolled his eyes.

“Alright, I’m keeping this shot for sure”, Lucia announced with a teasing smile while Nero was still forcing himself to think about the weirdest things he could come up so that the tent in his trousers disappeared, “oh, and if you go for a sexy competition I’m sure no one will complain”

Vergil snorted after hearing Lucia’s suggestion.

“Please, we have more decency than that”

Dante barked a laugh.

“Good excuse, brother”, Dante said casually, beginning to button his t-shirt again while Vergil half-closed his eyes at him.

“Are you insinuating I can’t do it?”

Nero noticed the way Trish softly hushed at Lady and Nico when these ones were about to laugh after Vergil was so easily fooled. Sometimes Nero wondered how the bassist could be so clever in certain aspects and so childish when his brother was involved.

“Pffft, with that stick up your ass?”, Dante provoked, causing Vergil’s eye to twitch, “sorry, bro, you may have some qualities, but posing sexy is not among them--”

“ _Move aside_ ”

Suppressing a smirk Dante extended his palms in vertical in a surrender position while Vergil brusquely stepped inside the area, surprising everyone by momentarily abandoning it in order to recover one of the water bottles Kyrie’s friends had left there for them on an auxiliary table.

“Uhm...Vergil?”, Lucia inquired with confusion, just to gasp in disbelief when the man opened the bottle and emptied his content over himself, his hair, face and upper body ending pretty drenched. The bassist then came back to the area with the same determination than before, stopped in front of the camera, and after glaring at it he raised his chin while pushing back his hair in a slow motion, without stopping piercing the camera with his grey gaze, the [dark, blue shirt](https://image.dhgate.com/0x0/f2/albu/g4/M00/7D/67/rBVaEVm_kbuAWmsEAADtC5pjwt0713.jpg) he was wearing adhering to his collarbone, pectorals and abs due to the water.

“Holy fuck, brother”, Dante exclaimed honestly impressed while Nero forced himself to close his mouth, since he had to be blind and not-gay _not_ to consider that action sensual as hell. Even V who was silently observing everything from the distance nodded in approval in an expression that clearly said ‘ _Not bad_ ’.

“God, Saya is going to need a new pair of panties when seeing that”

“ _Lady_!”

“Alright, it’s decided: I want pictures of all of you like _that_ ”

“ _Lucia_!?”

“Don’t worry, Trish: I won’t use them for the photographic report _but_ this could come super in handy for more merchandise like posters or calendar, don’t you think?”

“I guess, but still…”

“It’s decided then!”, Lucia exclained, interrupting Trish’s still hesitating tone while turning towards the twins with her eyes shining, “come on, Dante, Vergil: pose together. We are going to make the fans absolutely crazy with some pictures of you two”

Nero would never admit it, not even to himself, but when seeing Dante and Vergil grabbing the respective front of their shirts with their faces extremely close to each other, he kind of understood why some crazy fans might like to picture the twins together.

“And now the ladies!”

“Yey!”, Lady exclaimed dragging Trish and Nico along with her.

“Lady, please, don’t do anything crazy”, Trish warned, fixing a little her hair while looking at the camera, not noticing the evil smile appeared in Lady’s face.

“Something like _this_?”

Trish gave a high-pitched cry when Lady suddenly appeared from behind her and sneaked her arms around the drums player to give a playful grope at her breasts.

“ _LADY_ ”

“As feminine and subtle as usual, love”, Dante said mockingly while Lady laughed at Trish, who was still glaring at her while protecting her breasts with her arms.

After Lady apologized (still laughing), the initial idea was that they three appeared in the picture, but when Lady enclosed her arms around Nico’s neck and this one settled her arms around her hips, suddenly Lady’s playfulness faded a little while Nico gulped loudly, and Nero could see from where he was the tension surrounding both women, as if they were suddenly aware of the position they were in. He also saw Dante, Trish and Lucia interchange a look, and as if they had talked telepathically all of them nodded before Dante intervened with a casual tone.

“Hey, Trish, you up for a picture together?”

“Of course”

Dante and Trish rapidly went to the armchair while the vocalist and keyboards player awkwardly cleared their throats, stepping aside the area while avoiding eye contact. Nero also noticed how the photographer rewinded the part of the video where Lady and Nico posed together to record the next footage over it, respecting that way the unexpected intimate moment of the two women.

Trish and Dante posed together with the guitarist sitting on the sofa and Trish on his left leg, with her legs crossed and her right arm leaning on his shoulder, looking at him with a smile that tried to be seductive but that was so full of camaraderie that it was evident that they were just good friends pretending to be something more. Lucia also caught in video when Dante began to bounce his leg up and down, surprising Trish who yelped again before falling over Dante for being put out of balance, causing the man to exhale a pained ‘ _Ouch_ ’ followed by another one when Trish hit him playfully, and Nero was grateful that such an interaction didn’t make him jealous of anything, considering it rather adorable instead.

“Alright, and now, to conclude this sexy parade…”, Nero’s eyes opened wide when Lucia looked at him with intensity.

“Wait, me?!”

“Yes, with V”

“I beg your pardon?”, V intervened from his secluded spot, blinking with confusion while Lucia began to talk with a begging tone.

“Please, please, can you do this for me? I have some clothes that would look super good on you and that definitely those geezers can’t wear”

“Hey!”

“ _Geezer_?”

“You don’t even have to pose sexy at all”, Lucia continued, completely ignoring the twins’ offended replies while signaling a particular spot of the table, “and you even can choose the clothes you want to wear! They are in that pile tagged as ‘general’. Pretty please?”

Since it was really important for Lucia and considering that her suggestion wasn’t too unreasonable, Nero and V eventually agreed, causing Lucia to clap her hands again enthusiastically. It didn’t take Nero much to choose the [shirt](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dcwAAOSwuAVWt708/s-l300.jpg) and the [pants](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61Ye6uSM4cL._UX342_.jpg) he was going to wear, but V was another story. The man spent his good 10 minutes reviewing almost all the clothes and discarding them until finding something that was close to his liking, that resulted to be a black t-shirt with a [really weird design](https://www.punkshop.eu/images/produkty/ps/a01182.jpg) which included transparent parts through which his tattoos could be seen. They changed themselves inside the portable [dressing room](https://5.imimg.com/data5/FE/HH/MY-24153194/portable-trial-room-500x500.jpg) Lucia and her team installed the previous day, and when they finally stepped inside the photo shoot area Nero just stood there, hands in his pockets and glaring at the camera as if it was his mortal enemy. 

“Kid, relax. The camera doesn’t bite, you know?”

Nero half-closed his eyes at Dante, who was next to Lucia observing him with amusement. He showed the guitarist his middle finger (Lucia took a picture of that) but the others’ comments managed to put him at ease enough to take a decent picture with V and him back to back, looking at the camera: he with his arms crossed, and V with one across his chest and the other in a vertical position so that he could lean his chin on his fist.

“Nice, thank you very much!”, Lucia took like twenty pictures with them posing then with Shadow (who by then was beginning to fall asleep because he yawned a lot) before offering them a hopeful smile, “you sure you don’t want to go for the sexy shot now that you are more relaxed?”

Nero was about to reject the woman’s offer when suddenly V addressed the guitarist with a small grin.

“Dante, you are the jealous type?”

The guitarist blinked with confusion while Nero looked at the poet with suspicion.

“I don’t think so?”, Dante ventured while Lucia and Trish almost strained their necks looking at him, clearly not agreeing with his statement.

V’s smile widened.

“Good”

Someday Nero would learn to read his friend’s mind but today wasn’t that day, because he wasn’t definitely expecting that V pushed him against the armchair so that he ended sitting before fluently crawling in his lap, the poet settling his right hand on Nero’s chest to pin him there before looking back at the camera over his shoulder with a small grin, causing a wave of enthusiastic shouts coming from the female components of the group.

“OH MY GOD! Guys, this is...Oh god, I’m going to make a safe of this footage RIGHT NOW”

“Shit, bro, I’m a lesbian but that was _hot_ ”

“…Lucia, I want a copy”

“ _Trish_?! Pfffft”

“W-What? I’m human, you know?”

“Brother, you are going to put a hole on them at this rate”

It was Vergil’s amused comment caused Nero to finally recover in order to swift his body a little to be able to see Dante, and when doing so, his heart began to beat faster while a heat as intense as Dante’s burning gaze spread inside him.

“Well, I think someone is hungry”, V teased in an amused low tone so that just Nero heard him, causing this one to feel the tip of his ears reddening because the poet couldn’t be more right: it wasn’t jealousy what was present in Dante’s expression but…yeah, hunger was the best word to describe it. In fact, the guitarist looked as if he wanted to take V’s place right then and there and damn it if that thought wasn’t appealing as fuck…

“Hey guys! Sorry to interrupt!”, the sexual tension surrounding the place was broken when Kyrie opened the door, still unaware of how her childhood friends looked at the moment, “I was talking to my friend and if it’s not a bother they would need Nero’s expert advice for a little whi-- _WHAAAAAAAAT_?! DAMN IT, why do I always miss the good stuff!? Nero, V, _don't_ you dare to move!”

V sighed with patience while the girl began to fumble with her mobile to take pictures of them before looking at Nero.

“Should we tell her that she had done it once again?”

Nero couldn’t help to chuckle, deciding that no, probably it was better not to let Kyrie know.

* * *

After Lucia was satisfied with the pictures she took, Nero accompanied a little flushed Kyrie to the main house to help the owners with a problem related to their rather old cooker hood they had been having for a while. When passing by Dante’s side he still felt the guitarist’s gaze on him but the electrical tension of before was already gone, thing that Nero partly thanked because, as he had told himself like a hundredth time since they got together, they were agreed on going slow. And yes, maybe that gaze interchange had left him wanting for (much) more, but he wasn’t a horny teenager anymore but a responsible adult that could control his impulses, despite what his friends seemed to think about him.

It just took him around 10 minutes to find the hood’s problem and give the owners some recommendations to fix it because he hadn’t his tools at the moment to be able to do so. After accepting the effusive thanks of the farm owners, he decided to stop by Nico’s caravan to wash his hands, who had ended rather stained. After five minutes of washing them he was checking that Lucia’s clothes hadn’t been dirtied in any way when someone knocked at the door.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me, kid”

Nero’s heart stopped for a moment before shaking his head, pushing aside the previous image of Dante ogling at him. He was so busy trying to look casual while opening the door that he failed to notice that Dante’s tone sounded, in fact, way too calm.

“Sorry, could have gone to wash me in the house. It’s all yours no--”

Nero’s sentence was brusquely cut with Dante’s mouth crashing against his.

He grunted with surprised content when, in a single motion, the guitarist managed to push him inside the small cubicle once again, close the door, and cage Nero against it with his hips and arms. A new groan escaped Nero when Dante sensually moved his hips against him once before continuing kissing him with fierce abandon. Fighting for the kiss dominance Nero placed one hand on the guitarist’s hip while the other hand reach up to settle on the back of his hair, his grips tightening on it when Dante suddenly liberated his lips to lick down the side of his neck, sucking a particular spot that made Nero’s member twitch as a small whine escaped him.

“Shit”, Nero could just breath out, causing the guitarist to exhale a soft chuckle mix amusement but also embarrassment against his sensitive skin.

“Yeah, well...”, Dante cleared his throat, raising his head to be looking at Nero again, “remember when I said that I wanted us not to go so fast?”

Nero looked at Dante cautiously.

“Yes?”, he pressed, not wanting to let his hopes up yet.

“Well…”, Dante scratched the back of his head, averting his eyes to the side while talking with an awkward smile, “...the truth is that I just suggested it because I’m rusty as hell in that ‘serious dating’ thing. As the ladies said, I’m not what you could call ‘good boyfriend material’, so I thought it would be better to take things with calm for a while not to fuck it up, you know. But…”,  Nero heard the hysteric pound of his heart in his ears when Dante’s clear eyes darkened in the same way than before, “...I won’t lie, Nero, I’ve been wanting you for a while now, and I guess that seeing you posing like that with V was the last straw”

Dante stating that fact with such bluntness made things to Nero’s body, concretely to his lower half, but then Dante’s tone continued talking in a tone sounded frustratingly calm for Nero at the moment.

“But of course if you prefer us to wait, that’s what we’ll do”, Dante’s tone turned joking, which just annoyed Nero even more, “it will be difficult not to fall into the temptation because damn, kid, you are pretty irresistible, but I’m a tough gentleman and I will wait all you need before--”

 _Enough talk_ , was the thought that briefly crossed Nero’s mind before surprising Dante by turning their positions so that it was the guitarist the one against the door. He enjoyed Dante’s shocked face but just for a second, since he immediately initiated a deep, hard kiss that made the guitarist exhale a sigh that soon developed into a grunt. When Nero began to rotate his hips against Dante with a languid cadency he felt Dante’s clothed member harden against his also half-hard one, verifying at that moment the unconfirmed rumor surrounding Dante’s anatomy. And damn, it wasn’t that he had a size kink or anything, but he had to suppress a groan when imagining what Dante could do to him with that ‘equipment’.

“Do I look like wanting to wait, old man?”, Nero eventually snarled against Dante’s ear, causing the guitarist to exhale a chuckle that was a little breathless. He was about to pay Dante back for his previous teasing by attacking his neck when the guitarist suddenly reached up and grabbed him by the back of his neck, aligning his faces to spell the next sentence with a relieved, hoarse tone.

“I’ll take that as a no”

Their mouths connected again in a dirty, messy kiss, Nero’s stomach clenching when feeling Dante’s free hand reaching for the hem of his pants. Nero shivered when Dante loosened the pants front button and began to lower down the zipper, exhaling a soft ‘Yes’ when his member stopped being so constricted. Nero repeated the same motion with Dante’s trousers, smiling during the kiss when taking a hold on the zipper.

“You wanna bet if it gets stuck?”

Dante exhaled a soft laugh, before capturing Nero’s lips again in a hard kiss.

“God, just remembered you fixing that thing with your tongue. I almost lost it right there, you know”

Fortunately, Dante’s curse with zippers didn’t appear that time and Nero could lower it without trouble, resuming their previous grinding and making out once again, both of them groaning softly for the almost direct contact. Nero had half a mind to surprise Dante by dropping in his knees in a similar way he did in the backstage, but now with a very different purpose. Damn, the face Dante would make when discovering what Nero planned to do would be priceless, and he also wanted to know if Lady and Trish were right when teasing Dante about being too vocal during sex.

As seconds passed he felt himself getting harder, not just for the grinding happening between them and for the more and more intense kissing, but also for thinking about Dante exhaling his name while he took the man in his mouth; about Dante’s fingers grabbing his short hair while moving against him, when the pleasure overcame his reason and could only think about reaching his release; about pushing Dante on the floor to give him one hell of a ride to prove him that his previous innuendo wasn’t for nothing; about teasing him with slow movements that eventually made the guitarist snap and take control, hopefully showing him that his legendary bed skills had a motive for existing.

Nero’s resolve of making all that happen at that same moment just increased when Dante’s hands slowly travelled down his back, stopping in the curve of his ass to get a firm hold on it and press their bodies closer with a rougher rhythm. He moaned inside Dante’s mouth before tilting his head to the side while falling into Dante’s new pace, pushing against him with probably too much enthusiasm.

“Easy there, kid”, Dante joked when Nero stopped the kiss with a panicked expression after the door cracked dangerously, “I’d prefer Nico didn’t kill us for breaking something before the actual fun starts”

Nero snorted softly with a teasing smile, adopting a fake surprised tone.

“Oh, so this is not all you got, old man?”

God, maybe someday teasing Dante like that would get him in trouble, but as long as it caused the guitarist to show _that_ kind of expression, as if Dante wanted to eat him right then and there, he would gladly take all the risks.

Dante exhaled then a deep, slow sigh, not saying anything initially, but the way his hands began to slip under the back of Nero’s pants was enough hint about what he planned  to do.

“You can bet it isn’t”

Nero bit his lower lip not to sound too needy when Dante snarled that in his ear while circling his finger softly around his covered entrance, leaning his forehead against the guitarist’s one while their clear gazes met together. His stomach clenched again when Dante made a tentative motion to push his index finger a little inside, still with the underwear in the middle, Nero’s hands passing to grab Dante’s shoulders tightly while rolling his hips back now, encouraging Dante to finally do _something_ instead of keeping with that teasing that was turning him crazy and--

 

 ** _CRACK_**!

 

The mood was completely destroyed with the creaking sound of wood followed by two female shouts that they didn’t identify at first, but which caused them to abandon the bathroom without the least hint of hesitation in order to help the ladies in trouble, who resulted to be Lady and Nico.

Both women were lying on the floor, Lady under Nico and the younger woman between the keyboard player's parted legs, and for the way they both looked at Nero and Dante with caught-red-handed expressions, the lipsticks marks adorning Lady’s neck and the top of her cleavage, and the pieces of broken wood that lied on each side of them, it didn’t take Nero much to deduce for what they had used the old workshop counter, which had been unable to bear the weight of one of the woman. Of Lady probably.

No one talked for the next seconds, both women getting gradually redder and redder while a knowing smile appeared in Dante and Nero’s faces at the same time. Eventually, it was Nero the one who broke the silence.

“Hope you don’t plan to put the blame on Griffon this time”

Nero’s unexpected comment caused Lady and Nico exhale the breath they had been holding before beginning to laugh.

“Nah, I’m not that bad”, Nico said happily after accepting the hand Nero offered her to stand while Dante did the same with Lady.

“Wow, so with Nico, huh?”, Dante said teasingly, “would have never guessed it-- _ouch_!”

Dante grabbed his left arm in the place that Lady had hit him while blushing lightly, and it was at that moment when Nero, who had been about to congratulate Nico for _finally_ getting together with Lady, got all serious.

“Shit! Wait, does this mean that you have begun dating today?”

Lady and Nico interchanged a look and exhaled an embarrassed laugh before Lady answered while shrugging her shoulders, taking Nico’s right hand in her left.

“Yeah, around... three minutes ago?”

The new _Devil May Cry_ pair stared with confused expression at Nero cursing loudly in frustration and at Dante clapping his hands once in triumph, while exhaling a loud _‘Wooho_!’.

“Told you I never lose, kid. You owe me a dinner~”

“Shit, why the hell are you so damn lucky?”

“Lose?”

“Dinner?

“Bro, what are you guys talking about?”

“Oh, so you are here!”

Nero didn’t know why he was surprised when everyone decided to pass by the van at that exact moment to search for the missing members, Morrison and Kyrie included.

“Come on, slowpokes, we still have a lot of pictures to tak...”

“O-Okay, Lu, stay calm, don’t kill me, I can explain this!”

“So I was right! You liked her and you didn’t tell ME, your best friend! Alright, it’s done. We’re done”

“No, Lu, wait! I was planning to tell you, I swear!!”

“Don’t follow me, EX-best friend!”

“Nooooo”

“Uhm, Nico, dear, what happened to the counter?”

“He he he, it’s kind of a long story…”

“If it happened in three minutes I don’t think it’s that long”

“ _Bro_!”

“Guys, remember I’m an old poor man: there are some details I don’t need to hear at my age”

“Nero, can I say something?”

“ _No_ ”

“But Nero, I think you should listen to V this time—"

“Kyrie, whenever V uses that tone it’s for something bad, so _no_ ”

“Alright. Then I won’t say a single word about your zipper”

“Oh, _shit_!”

“Ups, thanks, kid. I hadn’t noticed it either”

 “Tsk, it seems having a partner hasn’t made you less indecent”

“Says the ‘decent guy’ who used the plane’s bathroom with his fiancée to--”

“ _Dante_ …”

 

Needless to say, it was Dante the one who ended regretting bringing up that topic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it seems that the fic rating will be raised soon :DD


	15. THE NIGHT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case someone hasn't realized the rating is now **Explicit** for obvious reasons hehehe. 
> 
> Also, this chapter is a monster (10k...) but I considered that leaving the chapter with them being about to do it was inacceptable xDD So here you have the whole pre-date and date :P 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! ^^

When the video Lucia recorded in the farm was finally posted in _Devil May Cry_ official website that same Sunday, Nero was in part expecting that the impact in the donations was considerable. What was a surprise, and not just for him but also for the entire group, was to discover that same Monday that the account storing the donations had twice the sum of money Kyrie needed to rent the new place, and also to pay for the rest of the necessary expenses.

With all the extra money they had obtained Kyrie could have surely rented an even better place, but first, she and her companions had already fallen in love with the one they found and didn’t want to change it, and second, while talking to Nero on the phone she commented that she would feel bad in case of taking all that money because it was too much, and that preferred to only use what she needed and to donate the rest to the other shelters which were also in need.

Also, when Kyrie commented she planned to hire a professional service in order to leave everything working in the place instead of ‘using Nero for the technical stuff’ as usual, this one immediately argued that it was stupid to pay for a service that he could surely do faster and better, so he went to ask the group for permission to take that week off in order to help Kyrie with the installation in the new place. The others almost got angry at him when he made that petition with an unsure tone, and encouraged him to take all the time he needed because besides, for once, they had a calm week for themselves and spent most part of the time locked on the recording studio working on the themes for their new album.

So, while Kyrie dealt with all the necessary legal stuff and paperwork with V’s help, Nero had a rather intense week helping Kyrie’s friends to leave everything ready in the new shelter, which meant that during all that time he could barely see Dante, much less to get involved in any kind of intimacy with him.

Surely, that was what had led to Nero’s current situation when finally meeting with the guitarist on Friday, with him pressed against the door of Dante’s private room and kissing as if the world was going to end the next day. Not that he was going to complain: he had been craving any kind of physical contact with Dante since they were accidentally interrupted in the van by Nico and Lady, so now that they had some free minutes before Dante had to meet with the rest, like hell if he was going to say no to it. However, when those 5 minutes turned into 10 and the simple kissing had evolved in fully wild making out, Nero felt in the stupid duty of being the responsible one.

“Shouldn’t you be in the studio with the rest?”, Nero inquired with a breathless tone when Dante momentarily left his already abused lips to bite the side of his neck, in that place that always made his knees weaken. Shit, that was his third encounter with Dante and this one had already managed to remember his main weak spot. He didn’t want to know what would happen when they were together for longer and he had discovered all of them (it was a lie: he _did_ want to).

“Yeah, but this is funnier”

Nero chuckled when hearing the invalid argument, reluctantly gripping the back of Dante’s hair to force his mouth out of his neck. He remembered too late Dante’s almost-for-sure kink for hair gripping, which caused the guitarist to grunt and kiss him fiercely instead of stopping. Probably the fact that Nero’s answer was to groan softly while kissing back as heatedly wasn’t the best way of dissuading Dante, but damn, it was not his fault that the man was so fucking good at kissing and left him wanting for more--

 

_Knock Knock_

 

Nero jumped startled when feeling the wood behind his head tremble, which put an end to the kiss. They didn’t need to ask who it was at the other side: the cutting, firm knocks combined with Dante’s patient expression told Nero who was at the other side of the door.

“I’m going already, Vergil”

“You better”, the bassist said with a casual tone, “otherwise, guess who is going to sing the part of the defeated demon in the new song”

Dante huffed, still with his arms enclosed around Nero’s lower back.

“As if you would let me sing the other part”

Vergil’s mischievous chuckle at the other side made Dante glare at the door.

“Giving up already without a fight? What a disappointment, brother. Maybe Nero is not such a good influence for you after all”

“ _Hey_!”

Nero snapped a hand against his mouth while Dante closed his eyes in resignation when Vergil hummed exaggeratedly at the other side of the door.

“Oh, so he is there? I would have _never_ imagined it”

The sarcastic emphasis Vergil put to that adverb clearly indicated the bassist had been aware of Nero’s presence inside his brother’s room from the beginning. When Vergil’s steps faded in the distance, Dante let out a long sigh.

“Did I ever say I hate when he does that?”

Nero chuckled when hearing Dante’s exasperated tone.

“When he is clever than you, you mean? Because no offense, Dante, but that happens more times than not”

The guitarist half-closed his eyes at him.

“You know, when normal people get together, they are usually more romantic to each other. And what you do instead?”, Dante pointed at the door with an accusatory finger, “you take my damn brother’s side and call me dumb”

Nero smiled innocently and shrugged, since it was obvious that Dante was just playing around.

“Sorry, Dante, but reciting poems is V’s thing, not mine”

Dante’s facade of being annoyed broke when the guitarist exhaled a laugh, kissing Nero next briefly.

“Yeah, they’re not my thing either”, Dante’s tone turned suspiciously casual then, “and speaking about couple stuff, do you have something to do this weekend?”

Nero smiled to himself, remembering the first time Dante said a sentence along those lines making his hopes up even if at that moment the guitarist didn’t even like him.

“In the morning I planned to pass by the shelter to check everything kept working, but I’ll be free in the afternoon”, he tilted his head a little with a curious smile, “why?”

“Well”, Dante smiled seductively and leaned forward until his nose was brushing against Nero’s one slightly, “because I think it’s the perfect day so that _you_ invite me to that dinner”

An incredulous laugh escaped Nero while he hit the guitarist’s arm.

“And you say I suck at romance? Man, you are even worse”

“Never said I was good at it”, Dante replied, adopting a more serious tone next, “and also, I don’t know what plan you had in mind for it, but I was going to suggest to order something in my place”

Nero couldn’t prevent his heart from beating slightly faster when hearing Dante’s suggestion. The truth was that he hadn’t had time to think much about the lost bet, but the perspective of visiting the guitarist’s home again made anticipation settle in his body, remembering how things had been about to escalate last time in the van’s bathroom.

“Yeah, sure”

Nero was surprised when his practically immediate answer made Dante exhale a soft sigh before smiling with certain relief, but he couldn’t ask the guitarist about that reaction because a new set of knocks sounded, louder and way less elegantly than the previous ones.

“Dante, dude, don’t want to alarm you, but Vergil--”

“I know: he wants me to play the role of defeated demon”

“Defeated demon? Nope, he has just suggested you play the role of human princess to be rescued by the demon in the next concert”

Dante got pale when hearing Nico before barking a loud laugh.

“Hah, good try, love”, after a small pause Dante talked again, this time nervously, “Nico? That’s a joke, right?”

“Yeah, it was at first, but somehow Vergil is managing to convince Lady and Trish that you would be awesome in the role and now they are seriously considering it”

“That _bastard_ ”

Nero rapidly stepped aside from the door when feeling Dante’s urgency of trying to kill his brother. He was expecting that the guitarist abandoned rapidly the room, but with the hand on the doorknob Dante suddenly grabbed the back of Nero’s head and kissed him, separating seconds later with his eyes glinting playfully.

“Don’t forget to bring a change of clothes tomorrow”

The implications of Dante’s words made Nero’s heart skip a beat, and his mouth was still opened when the guitarist left in a rush and the only one remaining there was Nico, looking at him with her hands on her hips and a knowing wide smile in her face.

“Hey, Nero, what is _this_?”, Nico said with a fake confused tone while playfully pinching the side of Nero’s neck where Dante’s tongue had left a hickey.

Nero immediately covered it and half-closed his eyes at the woman, just before smiling in the same way.

“I don’t know but I’d swear it’s the same as _this_ ”

Nico yelped and giggled when Nero pinched the woman’s exposed stomach, where a pretty recent bite mark had been made around his navel.

“Fair enough”, the woman enclosed an arm around Nero’s neck with her usual lack of delicacy, causing this one to almost lose balance, “come on: seeing how Dante tries to escape from his destiny to be a princess is going to be hella fun to watch”

Of course, Nero didn’t hesitate to follow the woman to witness such a thing.

* * *

“V, I swear to god that if you don’t put that mobile down…”

“My apologies, but I cannot possibly _not_ immortalize this moment”

Nero threw the t-shirt he had discarded against his friend, who managed to avoid it while still pointing his damn phone at him while, as usual, Kyrie stared at the whole situation laughing without offering him any kind of support.

He sighed with resignation while fumbling inside his wardrobe to find something to wear to his first official date with Dante, ignoring his idiot friends who were observing him with amusement from his own bed: V sitting on the border with his legs crossed and filming the whole thing while Kyrie was leaning against the headboard, with her legs extended and patting Shadow’s head because the panther had decided to join the party of ‘let’s-laugh-at-Nero-suffering’, and was comfortably occupying the rest of the bed next to the woman.

However, even if he wasn’t going to admit it aloud, it was kind of true that the fact he was wasting so much time in dressing was a milestone. Normally he didn’t invest more than 5 minutes in getting ready, but it had been 25 full minutes and he was still trying to figure it out what clothes to choose.

“Alright, Nero, now seriously”, V began to say with a patient tone when Nero discarded a new t-shirt with a curse, “there is absolute zero need of spending so much time in this”

Nero snorted loudly, smelling the t-shirt he had chosen and cursing, realizing that nope, he couldn’t wear that one.

“For you it’s easy to say”, Nero snapped, “you would be able to make a damn potato sack look stylish”

While Nero grabbed a new t-shirt, V blinked in disbelief while Kyrie’s mouth fell opened.

“Nero, do you realize you have just called V handsome?”

“Yeah, and? That’s one of his very few qualities, so not gonna deny it”

Kyrie burst out laughing again when V rolled his eyes patiently, the woman being the one in talking next.

“You know, I think you should listen to V this time”, Kyrie intervened with a soft tone, “I mean, it’s normal to be nervous for having your first date with the man of your dreams--”

“For fuck’s sake, Kyrie...”

“What? Am I wrong?”

“I-I guess you are not, but come on, saying it like this--V, your mobile is going to fly out of the window, _I mean it_ ”

“Alright, I promise I will stop recording if you say you are going out with ‘the man of your dreams’”

“LIKE HELL IF I’M SAYING THAT”

“...BUT…”, Kyrie’s raising her voice made her friends automatically shut up, allowing the woman to keep talking with her usual sweet tone, “...for what I’ve seen of Dante, I’m sure he couldn’t care less about how fancy you dress, and that the only thing he cares about is spending a lovely night with you. So, relax and pick something comfortable, and I’m sure it will be more than enough”

Nero exhaled a breath and nodded to himself, smiling gratefully at Kyrie for pushing that stupid nervousness away.

“And also bear in mind that wasting time in choosing an adequate clothing that is going to be discarded in mere minutes is beyond pointless”

Nero closed his eyes while Kyrie’s next giggles woke Shadow up, since the giant cat had fallen asleep next to her. He should have known that V would break the moment, but the poet wasn’t entirely mistaken: he really doubted that they managed to keep their hands off each other from much time after having dinner…

...speaking of which. he hadn’t called to order yet!

“Shit, I almost forget”, Nero grabbed his mobile and pointed at two t-shirts leaning on a chair while looking at Kyrie, “please, while I call to the restaurant can you choose among those ones which one you think it’s the best?

“Of course!”

“So you trust her judgement in clothes before mine? I’m deeply offended, Nero”

“And let you choose a t-shirt like the last you brought me? HAH! No, thank you”

Against all odds, when he received a message from Dante saying he was waiting for him in the street he had already called for dinner and was dressing with the clothes Kyrie had chosen for him: his usual jeans and a black V-neck t-shirt that Nero didn’t use to wear because it was tighter than usual, but that that night he agreed to dress after remembering Dante’s face when dressing similarly during the last week photo shoot.

“Good luck, Nero!!”, Kyrie said excitedly from the door’s frame after Nero left the apartment while putting his bag on, causing this one to laugh.

“Damn, why the hell you are acting like a proud mum?”, he protested, obviously accepting Kyrie’s effusive hug while waving his hand towards V, who was leaning against the back of the sofa while petting Griffon’s back, and who returned his gesture with a soft movement of his chin while smiling teasingly.

“Hope you make that devil cry your name”

Nero rolled his eyes while Kyrie was depositing an encouraging kiss to his cheek, and with a last wave of his hand towards his friends, he finally began to climb down the stairs, feeling his heart beating faster than usual because he was more nervous than he had wanted to show. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but doing that was rather useless because when he reached the street he had to prevent his mouth from half-opening, since Dante was sitting on his motorbike, dressing in a pair of leather pants and wearing a jacket of the same material over a denim shirt that was incredibly similar to the one he had been wearing in the photo shoot. Nero gulped subtly, feeling his throat getting dry when realizing that there were high chances of him sleeping with that incredibly hot man that night.

“Hey there!”, fortunately, Dante talking with that already familiar cheery tone helped Nero to relax again while approaching, “sorry, I’m late. The traffic was horrible”

Dante stopped talking, smirked with amusement and began to wave his hand at some point over them. Nero followed Dante’s eyes and was about to facepalm when catching a glimpse of Kyrie’s silhouette hiding not-very-subtly behind the window curtains of their apartment.

“Sorry about that”, Nero said with patience, kissing Dante briefly before taking a seat behind him in the motorbike, “‘privacy’ is not in Kyrie’s vocabulary”

Dante chuckled.

“In any woman’s vocabulary you mean”, Dante handled one helmet to Nero and put his own as well, leaning over the handlebars again, “hold on tight, kid. Hope you enjoy the ride”

Nero bit his tongue not to reply that he really hoped it wasn’t the only one he got that night, contenting himself to enclose his arms around Dante’s front when this one started the bike.

In barely 15 minutes they were stopping in front of the apartment complex. Nero waited for Dante in the building’s entrance while this one left the bike inside the private garage, checking his mobile and smiling when seeing he had more messages coming from the women of the group, all of them wishing him to spend a nice night.

“Kyrie again?”

Nero chuckled when hearing Dante’s wrong guess after joining him again.

“Nope. The ladies”

Dante huffed, opening the door and letting Nero enter first before following him inside.

“Trish and Lucia sent me some too”, the elevator was there already so they entered it, Dante leaning his back against it with his arms crossed and an offended expression on his face, “man, they have zero faith in me: they sent like 20 messages saying things that I _mustn’t_ do under any circumstances”

Nero exhaled a laugh, looking at Dante teasingly.

“So you weren’t joking when saying that you aren’t good boyfriend material”

Dante half-closed his eyes at him, casually leaning an arm against the wall where Nero was also resting his weight, caging him there and causing Nero’s eyes to divert automatically to his lips.

“Well, you are in time to stop this date right here right now”, Dante suggested, causing Nero to smile playfully before leaning forward to initiate a long, open-mouthed kiss that Dante immediately returned.

“Nah”, Nero said after they separated, “no one likes perfect boyfriends”

Dante smiled back, nudging his nose with Nero’s briefly before separating, just when the elevator’s doors were opening again.

“Good answer”

Nero followed Dante inside his apartment, his eyes opening wide when doing so.

“Wow. You have cleaned up”

Dante snorted.

“Yep, guess who ‘encouraged me’ to do so. Hint: it begins with ‘Tri’”, while Nero laughed, Dante signaled the bag he was carrying with his eyes, “you can leave that in the bedroom if you want. Do you want a drink or something?”

“Yeah, a beer”, Nero was about to climb up the stairs when a last minute doubt assaulted him, “which bedroom? The guest room or--?”

Dante, who was already going to the fridge, stopped in his tracks and looked at Nero with an _‘Oh, really?_ ’ expression that was all the answer Nero needed. After leaving his bag and jacket in Dante’s [bedroom](http://net-travel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/one-bedroom-apartment-for-family-of-3-with-melbourne-hotel-apartments-rooms-at-oaks-on-lonsdale-melbourne-8.jpg) he returned to the living room. Dante was already sitting on the sofa, and when he passed by his side the guitarist handled him his drink.

“Thanks”, Nero sat down next to him but leaving a little of space between them. He was about to take a sip when seeing Dante raising his beer towards him with a joking expression.

“For a not very disastrous first date”

Nero snorted with a smile, accepting the toast before drinking. He leaned against the sofa and couldn’t suppress a long sigh.

“Man, this sofa is the damn best thing of the house”

Dante chuckled.

“I completely agree”, the guitarist leaned forward to leave his beer on the table, “the dinner should be about to arrive, right?”

Nero extracted his mobile from his pocket and checked the hour, nodding briefly after doing so.

“Yes, in 10 minutes at most it should be here”, Dante nodded, suddenly remaining silent with a pensive expression in his face that made Nero look at him with curiosity, “what?”

“Nothing”, Nero looked at him skeptically when the guitarist answered too fast, causing this one to scratch the back of his head before looking at Nero, “okay, in fact there is”

Nero frowned when Dante made a short pause, confused for the guitarist’s sudden serious tone when formulating the next question.

“Would you have preferred to go somewhere else to have dinner?”

Nero still didn’t understand Dante’s current attitude, but decided to answer before being the one in asking the questions.

“No. I mean, I don’t mind going to restaurants from time to time, but I think eating at home is way more comfortable”, he hesitated about adding something else but eventually went for it, “and besides, unless I’ve been reading something wrong in the past week, I think that having a bed so close will come in handy”

His last comment caused Dante to begin to laugh, clearly taken by surprise. Nero noticed that the tension surrounding Dante’s body had decreased, and when the guitarist talked again, he sounded more like himself.

“Okay, good to know”, Dante leaned against the sofa again, sifting his body to be facing Nero while leaning his left arm on the back of the sofa, “I was just kind of worried that you were expecting a more normal date and that suggesting to spend the night here had bothered you. But knowing how much you dislike to make public appearances, and how you prefer to keep being in the anonymity as much as possible, to be seen together and alone in a public place would be the same as calling the damn paparazzi directly to say: ‘ _Hey guys, we are together, go post this in the fucking magazine cover!_ ’.

Nero wasn’t expecting it when Dante finished the sentence with a light bitter tone he wasn’t used at all to hear, and the guitarist seemed to detect that because he continued with a lighter tone.

“And I know it’s the price to be famous, and that probably if I don’t screw this up and we keep being together for more than two weeks, we’ll have to deal with this sooner or later--”

“--or maybe not”, Nero interrupted Dante with a smile, having liked to hear aloud that Dante planned to be with him for a decent period of time, “look at Vergil and Saya. They have been together for...how much it was? Six years? And people don’t know who she is yet”

Dante looked at Nero with surprise.

“So you’re saying that you wouldn’t mind that?”

Nero exhaled a deep sigh, crossing his arms.

“Well, the truth is that I’m super disappointed because I was planning to announce it in my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so that all my followers knew about it but oh, _wait_ , I don’t use any of those! We are good then”

Nero raised his hands in time to avoid the cushion Dante threw at him, smiling at the guitarist teasingly while this one glared at him.

“For once that I talk seriously and you--”

Nero interrupted Dante’s grumpy sentence by kissing him. He planned it was brief but when trying to separate Dante followed his mouth while grabbing his arm, dragging Nero towards him. Nero took the hint and still kissing he climbed on Dante’s lap, firmly settling his knees on either side of the guitarist’s legs before deepening the kiss, sighing when feeling Dante’s fingers slipping under his t-shirt, reaching skin.

“Okay, nice argument”, Dante joked, causing Nero to exhale a breathless chuckle before talking.

“But now seriously: no, I don’t mind not being a 'normal pair', or not going to 'normal dates'. And if the price to be 'normal' is to stand paparazzis and stupid questions about what the hell we do in our private time, I prefer to be discreet about this”

Nero was going to add something else but this time he decided to remain silent. Dante didn't have that problem.

“Well…”, Dante suddenly said, taking a better grip at Nero’s hips, “…even if it kind of sucks not to be able to be more in the open, on the other hand having a secret relationship with you is kind of a turn on”

Nero felt the tip of his ears reddening because that was exactly what he had thought, and it seemed it showed in his face because Dante’s smirk widened.

“Oh? So I’m not the only one who thinks that, huh?”

“Tsk, shut up”

Nero interrupted Dante’s amused laugh with a new kiss. However, before he could get much into it, his mobile vibrated on the sofa, so still on Dante’s lap Nero reached for it. It was a message, and its content made his heart skip a beat.

“What?”

Nero tried that his voice sounded super casual, but he was pretty sure he failed.

“The restaurant. They said there has been a problem with the order and that it’ll take them 40 minutes to arrive”

He was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the sexual tension that heavily fell between them at the moment, neither the nature of the light that passed to adorn Dante’s eyes at that moment.

“Well…”, Dante began with a low tone that made Nero’s stomach clench...just before adopting a cheerier one that made Nero want to strangle him, “...what would you like to do to kill time? I have several movies, or we could play something. Do you like chess, Nero--?”

Nero felt a wave of satisfaction when Dante couldn’t prevent a groan when he grabbed him by the front of his shirt and kissed him hard, at the same time that he began to rock his hips down. The grip of Dante’s hands on his hips increased, his right hand travelling up to begin to caress the muscles of Nero’s back under the t-shirt he was wearing.

When they separated because of lack of air, Nero didn’t waste time in settling his hands on the buttons of Dante’s shirt, while fixing his eyes on the guitarist to find this one displaying an utterly satisfied expression.

“Okay, I guess you don’t like chess very much”

Nero rolled his eyes but he was smiling when leaning down to kiss Dante more calmly, at the same time that he popped open the first buttons of Dante’s clothing.

“I don’t mind chess”, and it was true, V loved that game and he had learned to play it when they were children without even realizing it, “but right now I’m more interested in a physical game”

Before he could regret using such innuendo, Nero captured Dante’s mouth again while finishing popping open rest of the buttons in one go to be able to roam his hands on Dante’s exposed torso. He had to suppress a moan from escaping him when feeling the warm, taut muscle under his fingers. Damn, it felt as good as he had pictured it’d be, probably better.

He felt Dante sigh against his lips when his hands shamelessly ran through the guitarist’s pectorals, the thin layer of white hair surely causing Dante a ticklish sensation. Still with his mouths locked and their eyes closed, Dante pushed Nero a little backwards to roll back his shoulders in order to discard the shirt. Nero blindly helped him doing so before opening his eyes again at the same time that Dante. He felt his member throb inside his pants when seeing the hungry expression in the guitarist’s face, and without averting his eyes from him Nero crossed his arms in front of his chest and, purposely slowly, he dragged the clothing up and out of his body, making sure to tense his muscles unnecessarily in the process.

The light embarrassment he was feeling for being showing off so blatantly vanished when seeing the way Dante was holding his breath, and when feeling a suspicious bulge grow harder under him. ‘ _Sorry not sorry, ladies_ ’, Nero couldn’t help to think with satisfaction, _‘but your dear Dante has turned gay for me_ ’.

“What, cat got your tongue?”, he provoked, settling his hands on Dante’s shoulders while resuming his grinding, “you’re way too quiet to be you--”

This time, Nero couldn’t suppress a gasp when Dante dove forward to capture one of his nipples in his mouth. Nero suffered a shudder when Dante rolled his tongue around the bud, his finger tightening on the guitarist’s naked shoulders, which made this one raise his face with a grin.

“Or maybe you are too talkative”, he teased, enclosing his mouth around his nipple again.

“You can use teeth”, Nero instructed, cursing in relief when Dante obeyed and gave it a soft bite, pulling it a little in a way that made Nero hum, his eyes fluttering close again, “oh yes, like that”

His comment made Dante grunt softly while beginning to thrust upwards.

“I’ve thought about it better: talk all you want”

Nero exhaled a soft chuckle when hearing Dante’s emphatic tone, gasping again when Dante pinched his unattended nipple with the other hand, all that without stopping rocking their bodies together. The heat that had settled by then was pretty suffocating, and when Dante released his chest and reached down their bodies with the clear intention of unbuttoning his pants, Nero grabbed his wrists, looking at Dante in the eye.

“Bed?”

Dante’s smirk provoked another shiver in his body.

“Lead the way”

Technically that should be Nero’s sentence because he was in Dante’s house, but he had zero trouble in rapidly standing up without releasing Dante’s wrist in the process. The only reason why they didn’t continue kissing after reaching Dante’s bedroom was because they didn’t want to break their necks while making out in the stairs, but the moment the door closed behind them they were on each other again, kissing desperately and competing to see who managed to get the other one’s undressed first.

Eventually it was Dante the winner, managing to push Nero against the bed and leaning over him to begin to lower down his pants and underwear. Nero felt his heart pound hysterically while raising his hips to make the task easier for the guitarist, his hands automatically enclosing around Dante’s back when this one crawled over him to kiss once again.

“Nero”, Dante said breathlessly after some moments of intense kissing and grinding, “have you showered?”

Nero nodded a little frantically, still recovering his capacity of speaking, his answer making Dante grin.

“Turn around then”

Nero didn’t have to be told twice, immediately agreeing to Dante’s petition with hasty obedience. Dante nudged at the side of his neck playfully, beginning to trace a damp line of kisses and licks down Nero’s back that left him shivering and biting his lower lip not to moan too much. Fuck, there was no doubt Dante knew how to make someone desperate for more.

“You know, I have never considered myself an ass-man, but damn, Nero”, Dante surprised Nero by giving a playful bite at his right buttock, the guitarist’s beard causing a tickling sensation in his skin, “you just proved how wrong I was”

Nero rolled his eyes with amusement before exhaling a long sigh when feeling Dante separating his buttocks to expose more his entrance. He leaned his head on his crossed arms and closed his eyes, forcing himself to relax and calm his racing heart while Dante prepared him. His eyes didn’t last closed too much though, snapping wide open when feeling something wet that definitely wasn’t a finger settling against his entrance, and which caused him to let a strangled, surprised gasp.

“What the _hell_?”

Nero leaned against his extended forearm and looked back, his member twitching against the mattress when catching Dante’s face buried between his buttocks before the guitarist straightened his position with a genuine, curious expression.

“What? This is not how it's done?”

It took Nero a moment to form a coherent sentence.

“No. I-I mean, yeah, that’s exactly how it’s done but--”

“Great then”

“But wait!”, Nero twisted a little his body so that his ass was out of reach when Dante was going to lower down again, causing the guitarist to look at him with certain impatience, “you really sure you wanna do it?”

Nero thought it was a valid question until he saw the way Dante blinked slowly and looked at him as if he was dumb, grabbing his hips to position him facing down in his original position, the unexpected rough gesture making Nero’s heart skip a beat.

“If you have finished with the ‘clever’ questions...”, Nero held his breath when Dante licked a vertical line that began in his lower back and continued between his crack until reaching his entrance again, the languid action making his hands clutch at the mattress, “...I would like to continue with my pre-dinner snack”

Nero would have hit Dante for the extremely stupid comment if at that moment the man hadn’t resumed lapping at his entrance, causing him to groan loudly while leaning his forehead against the mattress, a shiver travelling down his spine. He could count with the fingers of one hand the times he had allowed someone to eat him out and vice versa, since it was an act that required a level of trust and willingness that he wasn’t able to have with just anyone, and certainly he wasn’t expecting that Dante agreed to do something like that so soon, considering that he guitarist had never been interested in gay sex until meeting him. But god, he couldn’t have been more mistaken, because the way Dante was behaving, rolling his tongue against the ring of muscle before tentatively pressing it inside without any reluctance or hesitation, made clear that Dante felt perfectly comfortable with the situation, and therefore Nero decided to stop worrying about it.

Keeping his left hand grabbing the sheets, he reached back with the other to settle it on the top of Dante’s head. The angle was a little uncomfortable but he managed to grab the man’s hair while shamelessly beginning to rock back his hips, silently encouraging Dante to go deeper. This one immediately complied, pressing his tongue more inside and making Nero exhale a broken, loud gasp of unabashed pleasure when feeling the wet muscle rolling around.

“Fuck. Yeah”, Nero whined when Dante began to swirl his tongue, causing his inner walls to twitch and burn pleasantly during almost a complete minute until he couldn’t take it any longer, his member feeling painfully hard under his stomach for the guitarist’s A+ performance, “Dante, use your fingers”

Nero didn’t realize how commanding he had sounded until hearing Dante’s muffled chuckle reverberate inside, before adopting a kneeling position behind him.

“Sir, yes, sir!”

Nero exhaled an embarrassed laugh while turning his head to ‘glare’ at Dante, who winked jokingly at him. The guitarist crawled on the bed to recover a small bottle of lube from the nightstand drawer and positioned himself behind Nero again, pouring some liquid on his fingers.

“You can begin with two”, Nero commented when feeling Dante’s lubed index finger settling against his entrance, sighing softly when Dante complied, forcing his body to relax once again while the guitarist’s digits slowly entered him.

He felt movement behind him and sighed when Dante’s tongue rolled against his right shoulder now, depositing a playful bite on it. Nero took the hint and turned his face to the side. Dante didn’t lose time in diving forward to capture his mouth at the same time that he began to move the digits inside and out of him with a scissoring movement, with delicacy at first but more firmly when Nero’s moving hips encouraged him to do so. In no time Nero could accommodate Dante’s three fingers inside without feeling any discomfort, moment in which Nero broke their current kiss.

“Enough”, he announced, reaching almost desperately for Dante’s trousers, making the man chuckle while fully straightening his position on his knees so that Nero could loosen them more comfortably.

“Damn, wasn’t expecting you were so demanding during sex--”

Nero deeply enjoyed Dante’s intake of breath when he surprised the guitarist by mouthing at the bulge pressing against his red boxers, following the outline of Dante’s above-average member upwards while meeting the guitarist’s gaze: there was an astonished expression of excitement in Dante’s face, his chest going up and down with a heavier rhythm like before.

“Sorry, Dante, but it’s been a while since I left my blushing-virgin-phase behind”

Dante exhaled a breathless chuckle before lowering down to kiss Nero fiercely. The guitarist was about to straighten his position again but Nero guided him to lean back against his forearms, situating then between Dante’s opened and lightly flexed legs with a grin that made Dante snort softly.

“I really hope that cockiness of yours is for something or otherwise-- holy _shit_!”

If Nero’s mouth wasn’t occupied with the round tip of Dante’s member, he would have laughed with the loud curse Dante let out when he leaned over without warning to take the man in his mouth. Yeah, using that technique never failed to surprise his partners, he thought proudly while slowly beginning to take more of Dante’s girth down his throat, carefully not to gag.

Realizing he would be too reckless by trying to swallow everything, Nero enclosed his right hand around the base of Dante’s member, pumping it in time with the bobbing of his head, while using his left to softly massage the man’s sack. That last action made Dante whine for a moment while settling his hand on Nero’s head as a mere support. Without stopping his movements, Nero shot a glance up at Dante and felt a wave of arousal spreading inside him. Despite his initial bravado he had been actually a little nervous when finding himself face to face to Dante’s impressive member, but if the guitarist’s blissed expression was any indication, it seemed he was doing things right.

“Damn it, Nero…”, Dante groaned again when Nero rolled his tongue around the tip, pressing it against the slit before accommodating the member back inside his mouth, “damn, how the hell are you so good at this?”

Nero threw a mocking expression up at Dante that made this one rapidly talk again.

“Nevermind, don’t answer”

Nero suppressed a smile while diving down again when detecting a slight hint of annoyance in Dante’s tone. He was kind of relieved knowing that he wasn’t the only idiot in feeling that way when thinking about the other one’s previous affairs, even if those past relationships didn’t mean anything anymore. However, for the way Dante’s hips slowly began to thrust up against his mouth, and how Dante’s curses and gasps became more strained, it was evident that Dante was greatly enjoying Nero’s experience in the oral sex department, and that probably that wave of jealousy assaulting him had been left behind.

“Kid…”, Dante’s fingers dug on Nero’s head when this one sucked harder after hearing the appellative, the guitarist exhaling an apologetic laugh when understanding the warning correctly, “Nero... I really think you should... _hng,_ fuck... stop like _right now_ if you don’t want to wait an hour for the actual fun to start”

Nero released Dante’s member with a soft pop, drying his mouth with the back of his hand while looking at the slightly flushed man with a teasing expression.

“So you need a whole hour to recover? I was expecting more from you”

Dante rolled his eyes with patience while finally discarding his pants and underwear before prompting Nero to revert their positions, with his back against the mattress and Dante situated between his parted legs.

“Oh, don’t worry, you can keep expecting high from me”, Nero’s hands clutched the mattress when Dante opened his legs more by settling his hands on his knees and began to languidly rock his hips against him, in order to teasingly rub his member against Nero’s waiting entrance, causing this one’s stomach to clench painfully with need and anticipation, “because I plan to surpass those expectations over…”, rub, “and over…”, rub, “...and over again”

“ _Dante..._ ”

The guitarist chuckled softly when hearing Nero’s almost murdering tone and bent down to kiss Nero conciliatorily.

“Got it”, Nero hummed when Dante reached down to take a hold of his member, beginning to pump it slowly, “you wanna me to repay the favor?”

Even if a part of Nero was dying to feel Dante’s mouth around him, the whole foreplay had left him embarrassingly sensitive and he preferred to last more when Dante was inside him, so he eventually shook his head.

“Next time”

Dante nodded without insisting. He was about to recover the lube when he exhaled a soft impatient sigh.

“Damn, I forgot the condoms”

Dante crawled towards the nightstand drawer again while Nero accommodated on the bed so that his head was leaning against the pillow, but when seeing that the guitarist was about to open a new box, he talked.

“Wait, I have some in my bag”

Dante raised an eyebrow but complied in silence, briefly abandoning the bed to recover Nero’s bag. He fumbled inside it until finding the four condoms Nero had stuffed there more than a week ago, leaving three on the nightstand and keeping one before positioning himself between Nero’s legs again.

“You’ve been carrying these around all this time?”, Dante commented with amusement, tearing the envelope and sliding the condom over his member while Nero opened the lube on his own.

“Nah, not all this time”, Nero answered, applying some more lube against his entrance and passing the bottle to Dante so that he poured more on his already covered member, “just since the concert”

Dante chuckled.

“Yeah, I also had a couple in my pocket that night just in case”

The guitarist settled his right hand on the base of his member to angle it and the other on the bed next to Nero’s hips, while Nero grabbed his own knees to force his legs opened, unable to prevent his heart from beating faster when feeling the tip of Dante’s member teasing his entrance once again.

He suppressed a gulp.

Damn, it was really happening, wasn’t it?

“Hey, Nero”

The named one realized he had been staring at Dante’s member and switched his attention to Dante’s again. He wasn’t sure if that was good to his heart though, because the warmth he found in Dante’s expression was a little overwhelming, in a good sense.

“Be gentle, okay? I’m a virgin in this after all”

Nero snorted when hearing Dante’s joking comment which managed to put him at ease. He exhaled a deep breath and after relaxing all he could he nodded, giving Dante’s permission to finally begin to enter him.

As he was already expecting, the first stretch was quite painful despite all the preparation, causing Nero to frown and hiss because it had been a while since he had bottomed, and even more since he had a partner with such sizeable member. However, when noticing that Dante was planning to pull back, he rapidly released one of his knees to reach for Dante’s wrist placed next to his hip.

“Keep going. Can take it”

The guitarist seemed about to complain but Nero interrupted his protest by raising his head to kiss him.

“Dante, I _can_ , okay? Just been a while”, Nero smirked at him with confidence, “so come on, give me all you got”

Dante huffed with a smile, leaning down to bite Nero’s ear and making this one gasp softly.

“Tough brat”

Nero felt Dante’s smile in the comment. He moaned softly when Dante licked the shell of his ear before passing to attack his neck, the extra stimulation being enough to distract him as Dante kept entering him. Nero released his other legs, hooking his arms around the guitarist’s shoulders instead while his thighs pressed against Dante’s sides.

The last half on Dante’s member slid more easily and when the guitarist was finally buried inside, they both exhaled respective relieved sighs.

“Damn”, Dante exhaled, gulping audibly, “you’re hot”

Nero exhaled a slight strained laugh.

“Thanks, you are not bad yourself”

Dante rolled his eyes when hearing the too-good-to-pass innuendo before leaning down to kiss Nero, while this one felt his hysteric heartbeat in his ears for the sudden realization that Dante was inside of him, finally, the thought being enough encouragement to softly push back against the guitarist, taking him by surprise.

“Wait, Nero”, Dante said with a light concerned tone while Nero’s mouth landed under his jaw to nip at it, making him groan softly, “don’t you need to wait before--”

“I’ve waited fucking enough”; Nero snarled, kissing Dante again and pulling at his lower lip impatiently, “move. _Now_ ”

It seemed that Dante himself had been holding back because after exhaling an aroused ‘ _Damn, kid_ ’ he grabbed Nero’s hips and began to move for real, beginning to rock inside Nero with long, firm thrusts that were still slow for his liking but that nevertheless made him groan a relieved curse. After some seconds Dante finally seemed to trust that Nero could actually take it as he claimed and picked up a faster rhythm, making Nero’s toes curl.

Yeah. That was more like it, what he had been craving to feel for weeks now and damn if Dante wasn’t delivering it.

Forcing his closed eyes open Nero stared up with dazed eyes at Dante moving over him. He had always thought that Dante was hot but sex definitely looked good on him, making him show that strained expression of bliss, with his clear blue eyes buried in Nero as if he didn’t want to miss any of his reactions, and the way he occasionally bit his lower lip when Nero unconsciously clenched around him.

When noticing that last detail Nero smirked, not hesitating in exploiting it by beginning to push back against Dante with equal force, now tightening on purpose with every roll of his hips. The effect was immediate: Dante gasped initially in surprise, but then encouraging grunts and ‘ _Yeah_ ’ began to easily fall from his lips, the grip on Nero’s hips turning sharper.

“Shit, Nero”, Dante suddenly released him and loomed over him, extending his arms on either side of his head while putting a momentary stop to their fucking, “you’re tougher than I thought”

Nero didn’t bother to hide his cocky expression, reaching up to his hand, entangling his fingers in the back of Dante’s hair. He raised his head to whisper the next sentence in the guitarist’s ear.

“Maybe your age is showing, _old man_ ”, Nero suppressed in time an appreciative whine when his teasing words caused Dante’s member twitch inside him, “wanna bet who comes first?”

Nero ended the question pushing Dante’s head back by his hair while playfully licking under his jaw, causing Dante to let out an unrestrained groan that went directly to Nero’s member. Fuck, Trish and Lady weren't exageratting, and he absolutely loved how vocal Dante was, and also how easy to provoke because when Nero leaned his head against the pillow again, the fierce determination on the guitarist’s face had never looked sexier.

“Remember you asked for it, _brat_ ”

The warning edge in Dante’s husky tone was the last thing Nero registered before pleasure overcame everything else after Dante resumed his movements, his first new slam hitting his prostate with deathly precision, causing his eyes to end shut closed again as a loud ‘ _Dante_ ’ escaped his mouth, one of his hands passing to clutch the pillow next to him.

“Jackpot”, Dante purred proudly against Nero’s ear, making this one’s whole body shiver.

“God”, Nero said incoherently, rocking his hips back against the guitarist in synchrony, aiming to hit that spot over and over, “shit, Dante...God, _yes_ ”

Dante licked his lower lip with arousal, eyes almost feverish while staring down at him, clearly enjoying seeing him squirming.

“Didn’t take you for religious, Nero”

Nero didn’t either, but damn, Dante’s powerful, well-aimed thrusts at his sweet spot were leaving him close to have a mystic revelation. He tried to reply something clever but his retort was lost in a new string of moans when Dante’s increased even more the rhythm, the bed now banging against the wall with each brutal movement of his hips.

At some point clutching at the sheets became insufficient and Nero’s hands passed to enclose around Dante’s broad back. Since that day that he saw those nails marks on Dante’s skin, Nero had dreamed with leaving them himself, even if it was on purpose instead of in the spur of the moment. But shit, he didn’t even have to try hard: the merciless pace Dante had settled caused that his nails dug on the guitarist’s muscles without even noticing, the feeling so intense that he had to get a hold on something.

Far from disliking the action, Dante grunted a hoarse ‘ _Yes_ ’, arching lightly as Nero’s short nails raked down his back, masochistically enjoying the marks that would surely adorn his skin later.

“Ngh... _Nero_ ”, Dante exhaled with excitement, bending down to lick up Nero’s neck until reaching his ear, “fuck. So good”

Nero couldn’t hold back his impending need for release any longer when Dante began to exhale his name against his ear, in that breathless, ragged voice that he had dreamed to hear so many times that he had already lost count. He sought Dante’s mouth with his to kiss him fiercely. One of his hands travelled down the guitarist’s back to take a good grip of Dante’s firm ass, while reaching down between his bodies with the other to begin to stroke his member, his need for coming bigger than that stupid bet he himself had suggested minutes ago. However, for the way Dante’s pace was becoming more erratic and sloppier, it seemed that he wasn’t the only one close.

“Dante”, he said with urgency, when feeling that familiar tightening sensation in his stomach, “shit, Dante, I’m close”

“Yeah, kid, me too”

Nero’s protest for being called ‘kid’ even if that situation was replaced by a groan when Dante bit his neck roughly, while getting a firm hold of his ass as well to bury himself in him more easily, with a more and more uncoordinated, rougher rhythm that came to an end with Dante snarling his name against his skin in a desperate tone that Nero knew he’d never fucking forget. With a final snap of his hips the guitarist finished inside Nero, his face buried on his neck. Nero reached his own peak mere seconds later between their trembling stomachs, spelling Dante’s name with a breathless, satiated tone that made the guitarist chuckle softly in content before kissing him again.

Still with their mouths connected in a clumsy, messy kiss, Dante slowly slid out from Nero and separated to lean next to him on his left side. Nero immediately turned to his right, his breathing and heart accelerated while looking at Dante, finding this one in the same exhausted state than him but with such a post-orgasmic idiotic smile in his face that he couldn’t suppress a laugh.

“Still with me?”

Dante exhaled a long, deep breath and nodded languidly before kissing Nero again.

“Of course. It takes way more to take me down”

Nero didn’t bother to hide his proud smile because, despite Dante’s comment, the guitarist was pretty spent, although it wasn’t that he could talk much: he still felt his legs trembling and his heart about to leave his chest at any moment. He guessed that he had to be grateful for all Dante’s previous encounters. There was no way the man could be so fucking good in bed without all that previous experience, and he had to admit that he had enjoyed it. _Greatly_. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was probably the best night of his life, and obviously not _just_ for the sex.

After spending almost a minute recovering their breathings, Dante abandoned the bed again to recover a towel and some tissues from the bathroom. After doing all the necessary cleaning and when the used condom was safely tied and discarded on the waste bin, they both lied on the bed again facing each other, with their heads leaning on their flexed arms, Dante’s right hand on Nero’s naked hip and Nero’s left over the man’s arm.

“So…”, Dante began with a tone that Nero had come to know very well, and that indicated that whatever the guitarist was going to say it wasn’t going to be very clever, “...how does it feel to sleep with a super star?”

Nero snorted, adopting a teasing tone next.

“What, not so sure about your performance anymore?”

“Nah, just love to hear how good I am”

Nero rolled his eyes with a smile, leaning forward so that his nose was brushing Dante’s one.

“Well, it’s been decent for a first round, but I’m not sure that you’re able to keep this rhythm”

Okay, definitely stirring Dante up was his second favorite thing to do now, Nero thought when seeing Dante’s eyes half-closing menacingly.

“Give me 30 minutes”, the guitarist whispered in his ear with a promising tone that made Nero’s whole body tremble, “and I will show you who is unable to keep the rhythm”

“Just 30 minutes?”, Nero teased, “before you had said an hour. Aren’t you selling yourself too high?”

Dante smirked, positioning himself between Nero’s parted legs again and lowering down so that his lips were inches apart when talking next.

“You should know already I always work better under pressure, kid”

Nero accepted Dante’s next hungry kiss with a groan, legs opening automatically and hands grabbing Dante’s ass (shit, the man surely had a nice-to-grab backside) as Dante rocked their still limp, sensitized members together, making them both groan in the process due to the overstimulation.

 

**_DING DONG_ **

 

They stopped immediately when hearing the doorbell, eyes opening wide, and it seemed they both had thought the same because at that moment both of their stomachs rumbled, making them both laugh.

“So, after dinner?”

“Hell yeah”

The dinner was on Nero but it was Dante the one who rapidly dressed up with a robe and climbed down the stairs, while Nero put himself comfortable with the pajama pants he had brought for that night. Before leaving he took a look at himself in the mirror. His whole neck was covered in marks, his short hair managed to be a little disheveled, and his expression in general claimed ‘ _Just got laid_ ’ in capital letters, so he couldn’t possibly suppress his contented smile when finally following Dante towards the first floor.

The guitarist had just closed the door and was approaching the living room table to place a couple of big closed bags on it.

“Hey hey hey, no peeking”, Nero reproached Dante when catching him about to do that, “you go back to get changed while I prepare this”

Dante made a surrendering gesture with his hands while smiling and obeyed Nero. This one made sure that the room of Dante’s door had closed before beginning to set everything ready. He had finished arranging the last [plate](https://cdn2.traveler.es/uploads/images/thumbs/es/trav/3/s/2018/40/pizzeria_rurale_metro_diego_de_leon_morena_morante_5694_940x627.jpg) when Dante climbed down the stairs again with a combination of new t-shirt and sport pants.

“Okay, kid, let’s see what super dinner have you ordered--”

Dante’s eyes opened wide when looking at the table, which made Nero begin to talk with the speech he had already prepared.

“Just before you say anything: no, this is _not_ the same as ordering pizza, okay? They have been made by an Italian chef and, according to all the guides on the Internet, they are the best you can find in the city, so even if it doesn’t look like an outstanding dinner you can bet that they will be better than any pizza you have ever taste--”

Nero learned that day that probably he should stop trying to guess what Dante was going to say when this one approached him in a couple of steps to kiss him senseless.

“Shit, it’s just been confirmed: I have the best boyfriend of the universe”

Dante snapping that exaggerated sentence with such sincerity made Nero exhale an embarrassed chuckle, the tip of his ears ending as red as Dante’s t-shirt.

“It doesn’t take much to make you happy”

The guitarist shrugged with a smile.

“What can I say? I’m a man of simple tastes”, Dante signaled at the table with his head with enthusiasm, “come on, before it gets cold”

Nero smiled when Dante practically ran to sit at the table and was about to join him when he heard his mobile sounding from the living room table. He went there to recover it and couldn’t prevent a laugh from escaping him when realizing he had an audio from Kyrie.

“Who is it?”

“Kyrie”, Nero answered while coming back to the table, “she just sent me an audio. Probably asking about how the night went”

Dante hummed, smiling with curiosity.

“Can I listen to it?”, Nero looked at him suspiciously, causing Dante to show an offended expression, “oh, come on: we are together already. And you know the saying: sharing is caring”

Nero rolled his eyes with patience but hit the playing button so that Kyrie’s voice was heard in the living-room.

“ _Hi Nero~!! I guess you’ll be having dinner right now but I wanted to wish you luck again for **THE NIGHT**. V is right now rolling his eyes with patience as usual but I’m sure he wishes you luck too! Hope you don’t get ANY rest and that you are as LOUD as that people that didn’t let you sleep in that motel hehehehe. Have fun~!! AH! And I want ALL the details, but I guess you already knew that ♥”_

Nero exhaled a resigned sigh while Dante chuckled.

“Aren’t you going to answer?”, Dante inquired playfully, “you should tell them that THE NIGHT is going pretty good”

Nero snorted when Dante put the same emphasis as Kyrie in those words and stood up with a resigned smile.

“I knew it was a bad idea to reproduce it now”

Exhaling a new sigh Nero pressed the recording button and began to speak, not realizing that Dante had stood up as well to approach him from behind, really slowly and silently.

“Hey there, guys. Yeah, we are about to have dinner, and yeah, THE NIGHT is being awesome so far, but like hell if I’m going to give you ALL the details about-- _ngh_!”, Nero couldn’t suppress a moan when the guitarist surprised him by biting the side of his neck with tongue included, making him suffer goosebumps in all his body, “shit, DANTE!”

“Uhm, Nero, maybe you want to stop recording”

“ _SHIT_!”

Nero immediately released the button, but by doing that the audio was automatically sent instead of being deleted. Beating his record of curses muttered in 10 seconds, it took Nero a couple of failed attempts to finally erase it, exhaling a relieved sigh after it before glaring at Dante, who raised his arms with a sincere half-apologetic expression.

“I swear I didn’t know you were going to react that much”

Nero was about to throw the first thing he saw (who resulted to be a sofa cushion) to the guitarist when suddenly his mobile sounded.

“Oh no”, he got pale while accepting the call that came from V.

He picked up the call, already fearing the worst, and his whole face ended red when hearing his own recorded voice at the other side.

“‘ _...like hell if I’m going to give you ALL the details about--ngh! Shit, DANTE!’_ ”, and then, V’s utterly amused voice sounded, with Kyrie’s uncontrollable giggles in the background, “ _thank you for the new ringtone, Nero. I was planning to change mine and this one is perfect_ ”

“V, DON’T YOU DARE!”, but the poet had hanged up already, and Nero could just turn to Dante, half-closing his eyes at him when seeing the bastard poorly suppressing a laugh, “I hate you”

Dante burst out laughing before approaching Nero, who avoided the guitarist’s next kiss by stubbornly turning his face away. However, that didn’t stop Dante from depositing a gentle, conciliatory kiss on his temple that made Nero’s heart skip a beat.

“Well, then later I’ll have to put extra effort so that you like me again”

Nero answered Dante’s seductive proposal with a snort, but his pretense of being annoyed for the damn audio went to waste because of the pretty idiotic smile that last kiss had put on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V keeps being the best of the story, just saying <3 <3 xD


	16. Movie Premiere (Part 1)

If a couple of months ago Nero had been told that one day he would wake up in Dante’s bed, he would have bent down in laughter, since at that time he had already assimilated that such an image would forever remain in his fantasies.

For that reason, when he woke up the next morning in a bed that was too big and fluffy to be his, Nero frowned initially confused while still opening his eyes slowly, the last threads of sleep making him think slower than usual. However, when his eyes finally gained focus and the first thing he saw was a portrait of a beautiful blonde woman on the nightstand, he snapped completely awake and remembered where he was, which caused him to smile in content.

At that moment he felt movement behind him and the sheets that until then had been covering him slowly followed it. Rolling his eyes but still smiling he shifted his body on the bed, finding Dante’s naked back facing him. He exhaled a long, satisfied sigh when seeing the nail marks that were adorning it, the memories of the previous night with Dante wrecking him good against that same mattress coming vividly to his mind. 

Nero checked the hour in his mobile. It was just 9.17, and since it was Sunday he knew that the considerate thing to do would be to let Dante sleep as he wished.

However, it wasn’t his fault that Dante’s broad back was so tempting, and for that reason he didn’t feel guilty at all while spooning the guitarist from behind, enclosing an arm around his waist while softly sinking his teeth on the exposed flesh, rolling his tongue around the slightly salty skin. 

Nero felt Dante’s abs flexing lightly on his next deep breath, which spurred him on to add a sucking motion to the bite he was delivering. If Dante wasn’t awake before that, he was now, if the light rumbling chuckle he exhaled was any indication. Settling his hand over Nero’s arm around his waist, the guitarist turned his face up to look at Nero, offering him a still half-asleep smirk.

“Don’t tell me you’re still hungry after last night, kid.”

Nero snorted softly against Dante’s shoulder when hearing the man’s words, guiding the guitarist to fully lean against the bed to crawl on his lap, Dante’s hands immediately settling on his hips in such a natural gesture that it seemed they always had belonged there.

“Well, I’m not called Nero ‘the Insatiable’ for no reason”

Nero accompanied his comment by rocking down his hips to make their morning erections connect at the same time he bent down to kiss Dante intensely. 

At the end they had just one round the previous night, since the dinner was rather copious and they both ended sprawled on the sofa while trying not to die from having eaten so much (and too delicious to waste) food. They spent almost two hours talking about different things, including Dante’s trip to his mother’s hometown and Nero’s adventures helping Kyrie with the new shelter, before deciding that it was probably wise to call it a day. However, after the extremely good sleep, Nero was more than ready and willing for Dante to fulfill his previous night promise, that would hopefully include this time that repayment that he had fantasized so much about.

Nero finally let Dante’s lips go and was about to suck at his neck when the guitarist chuckled with amusement, causing Nero to look at him with curiosity.

“What?”

“Well, you aren’t going to believe me but, for once, I swear I was talking about breakfast”

Nero’s mouth fell opened in embarrassment as the tip of his ears got incredibly red, which caused Dante to laugh again. 

“Damn, you look rather cute when being all flushed-- _ouch_!", Dante placed his hand on the top of his head, in the place Nero had hit with his knuckles, "hey, what the hell was that for!?”

“You’re an idiot”

“Why, for not saying an innuendo for once!?”

“Yeah, _exactly_ for that: it’s your damn fault that now I always think you are talking dirty and-- _don’t_ you dare to laugh”

Nero blushed harder when his threat was completely ignored and Dante burst out laughing. He was about to leave the guitarist’s lap in a really mature and not-at-all tantrum way when Dante inverted their positions, pinning him against the bed in a fluid motion to begin kissing him. Nero couldn’t help to groan when Dante’s tongue made his mind go blank as usual. He opened more his legs while caressing with his hands Dante’s biceps situated on either side of his head, his annoyance for being laughed at completely forgotten.

“I never said I didn’t like the misunderstanding”, Dante purred against his lips, “and good morning, by the way”

Nero felt his heart skip a beat when Dante added the last part with that soft tone that often escaped him when talking to him.

“Good morning”, he repeated, adopting almost immediately a reassuring, light teasing voice because he feared to blush again in case of continuing seeing Dante’s warm gaze for much time longer, “oh, and you can rest at ease: you don’t snore as much as I thought and I could sleep rather well.”

Dante’s smile immediately disappeared.

“Oi, what the hell you mean with that ‘as much’?”

Nero’s intention had been to try to fool Dante, but when seeing the man’s deeply offended expression he couldn’t help to exhale a laugh that betrayed his lie, which made Dante half-close his eyes before bending down to bite at his neck. Nero’s laugh was immediately replaced by a surprised gasp, followed by an aroused curse when Dante suddenly lifted the tank top he was wearing, exposing his chest to begin to lick down through it.

“Fuck, if you do this every time I try to fool you…”, Nero moaned a soft ‘ _Yes_ ’ when Dante’s tongue began to circle around one of his nipples, his body arching to encourage the guitarist to take it further in his mouth, “...shit, like hell if I’m going to stop”

Dante laughed while grasping his now hardened bud with his teeth, continuing with his tortuous descend down Nero’s clenched abs.

“You sure about that?”

Nero felt a tight knot in his stomach when Dante began to feathery lick over the hem of his lowered pants, without making any attempt of removing them or proceeding lower. 

“Damn you…”

Dante was fast enough to grab Nero’s wrists and press them firmly against the bed, on either side of his body. Damn, the man was surely strong, and probably there was something to say about the way Nero’s member throbbed inside his pants when feeling himself restrained. Dante noticed that and smirked, using his nose to teasingly rub the outline of Nero’s member, making this one clutch at the sheets.

“It looks like little Nero is impatient”

“For goodness sake, Dante, don’t ruin the mood”

“Oh, so it has another name?”

“Yes”, Nero insulted himself internally when Dante was clearly suppressing another laugh, “what? I was a kid when I named it, okay? And I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who--”

Nero shut up at once when, without averting his eyes from him, Dante finally began to lower down his pajama pants. He held his breath in anticipation when his by then half-hard member sprang free and Dante changed his position so that his face was over it.

“Well, Nero, I hope you forgive my clumsiness”, Nero bit his bottom lip not to whine when Dante pushed back his messy hair and began to lower down, “it’s my first time doing this after all”

Nero felt a wave of satisfaction when realizing Dante had never done this for anyone else, followed by another of arousal when Dante’s breathing ghosted over the tip of his member--

 

 ** _DING DONG_**!

 

Nero didn’t consider himself particularly violent but when the sound of the door caused Dante to raise his head brusquely to look behind him, he felt like killing the inopportune bastard that had just called.

“Huh. How weird. I wasn’t expecting anyone”

When Dante talked with a genuine confused tone, Nero had to suppress the impulse of forcing Dante’s face where it was some seconds ago. However, when he was going to clear his throat in a subtle way to reconduct Dante’s attention where it should be, the guitarist’s mobile began to sound. 

This time even Nero felt curious because it couldn’t be a coincidence. He reached for Dante’s mobile and his eyes opened wide when seeing the name.

“Who?”

“Morrison”

The guitarist frowned while taking the phone, leaning against his other forearm. Nero sat up on the bed while rearranging his tank top, looking at Dante with interest when this one picked up the call.

“Yeah, old man?”, Dante’s eyes opened more in surprise, “what?...But _right now_?”

Dante spent the following seconds simply humming to himself to whatever Morrison was telling him. Nero was about to tell Dante to turn the speakers on when the guitarist almost bounced off the bed. 

“Okay, got it. We are going now”

Dante hadn’t hanged up yet when Nero spoke, unable to contain his impatience.

“What the hell was that about?”

Dante chuckled. At least that meant that it wasn’t something bad.

“Well, long story short: we are taking a plane in 40 minutes”

Nero blinked twice before his mouth fell opened.

“ _What_?”, Nero exclaimed while Dante hurriedly abandoned the bed to go to his wardrobe in order to gather some clothes.

“Yep, remember the music video Lady and I had to record a month ago?”

How to forget it, he had never felt more jealous in his life, Nero thought but didn’t say, contenting himself to nod.

“Well, it turns out that that song has been used as part of the soundtrack of a movie whose premiere is tonight”, Dante explained quickly while dressing with his usual black t-shirt with that wide V-neck that Nero loved so much, “the artists are obviously attending it and, since the music video hadn’t been released yet, it’s been decided to show it in the premiere, so we have also been invited because of our collaboration.”

“And they warn you the same day?”

“Yeah, well, it seems that the whole music video thing has been a last minute decision, together with our invitation. There is a taxi waiting for us downstairs. I guess the driver is the one who has ringed before”

Nero was still wondering how _Devil May Cry_ managed to always be in a hurry in absolutely all the events they were involved when something that Dante had said sank into him.

“Wait, what do you mean he is waiting for ‘us’?”

Dante stopped buttoning his pants before beginning to gesture between him and Nero as if the last was dumb.

“Uhm...yeah, ‘us’, you and me, because of course you are coming too”

Nero opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before protesting.

“But I had nothing to do with the music video!”

Dante exhaled a short sigh and approached the bed again, leaning over Nero until their faces were rather close.

“Yeah, and neither Trish, Vergil or Nico, but guess what? They are coming too. Which means…”, Dante got even closer until their noses were touching, “...that you aren’t gonna be any less, idiot. And as much as I love seeing you half-naked in my bed we should hurry if we don’t want Morrison to kill us for missing the flight, so…”, Dante kissed him briefly and smirked, “...you better move that perfect ass of yours and get dressed.”

Nero huffed while hurriedly following Dante’s order, but he couldn’t deny he felt excited for going to a premiere, since definitely not everyone could affirm to have such a chance. 

After he was dressed with the change of clothes he brought the previous night, Nero followed Dante out of the apartment and they both rode down the elevator. As the guitarist had commented a taxi was waiting for them there, and apparently the driver was aware of their hurry because Nero had barely put the belt on the when the man began to drive at the maximum allowed speed. The trip had already been paid so they barely waited for the taxi to completely stop in front of the airport to rapidly abandon the car. After thanking the man and while running, Dante called Trish so that the woman guided them towards the correct gate, managing to arrive when mere five minutes remained for it to close.

“Just in time!”, Nico exclaimed, offering her extended palm to Nero, who high-fived her while Dante leaned both of his hands on his slightly flexed knees, his breathing labored.

“Damn, I may be a little old for this”, he exhaled while Trish softly patted his back reassuringly, causing Lady to laugh loudly.

“Careful, Dante”, the keyboards player winked conspiratorial at Nero, “if you don’t work on your stamina, maybe you leave certain handyman unsatisfied”

“Lady…”, Trish said with patience, causing Nico to giggle, Nero to blush lightly and Dante to snort before straightening his position to show a proud smirk.

“Well, I’m pretty sure that the so-called handyman has zero complains about my performance”

“ _Dante…_ ”

“Oooh? So that means--?”

“It means that the handyman is going to kick both of your asses if you keep talking about this”

Nico burst out laughing and Trish chuckled when Nero said that while signaling at Lady and Dante respectively, causing these ones to raise their hands in a surrender gesture at the same time.

“Hey, where are Morrison and Vergil?”, Dante inquired.

“Right there”, Lady signaled at the counter situated next to their gate, where Morrison was trying to convince the employer sitting there about something Nero couldn’t hear. Vergil was talking on his mobile some meters away from them, and Nero had to admire the woman for just looking slightly scared under the bassist’s impatient glare.

“Did something happen?”

Nero obtained his answer almost immediately when a familiar tall, young woman appeared walking rather fast from one of the lateral corridors and approached the counter, carrying a suitcase with one hand while sustaining a mobile with the other. The woman and Vergil didn’t interchange a word but Nero noticed how the bassist visibly relaxed when seeing her, and how they both hanged up at the same time before Vergil came back with the group while Morrison effusively thanked the employee, probably for having convinced to wait for Saya.

“Thought you hated unpunctual people, brother.”

Vergil glared at Dante while everyone began to approach the counter to finally show their plane tickets.

“The horrible organizers of the premiere are the ones to blame, not her.”

“Okay, okay, jeez. One can’t say a joke about your fiancée”

Trish hushed softly at the siblings while Lady made the employee blush after extracting the plane tickets from inside her cleavage. Nero was about to laugh at Morrison’s expression of: ‘ _What the hell are those tickets doing there?!_ ’ when Nico entangled her arm around his.

“Yo, let’s sit together in the plane”, she smirked playfully before lowering her tone, “you have a lot of things to tell me of certain guitarist’s performance.”

Nero sighed with a resigned smile while offering his plane ticket to the employee. He really hoped that Nico and Kyrie never joined forces, because there wouldn’t be a place far enough on Earth to escape from their gossip.

* * *

Even if the flight lasted 4 hours, it passed surprisingly fast, though probably the fact that Nero somehow ended caged between Lady and Nico had something to do with it. At first, the women began to shoot way too many (and intimate) questions about what happened the previous night, but when Trish provisionally abandoned her seat between Dante and Vergil (she had surely sat there strategically to prevent the twins from arguing) to softly encourage the women to give Nero a break, Nico nodded rapidly when detecting the subtle warning in the drums player voice while Lady pouted, and Nero could finally stop trying to hide under his seat to avoid the embarrassing questions.

After that, they three spent the rest of the trip watching movies and listening to Lady with great interest when the woman began to tell them anecdotes about the band when they were kids. For example, they learned that Vergil had always disliked puppets, and that when being at school Dante had been about to be expelled for fighting against a kid that had made fun of that. Mysteriously, that kid’s pet was reported missing, and just when the kid apologized profusely to Vergil in front of the whole class the pet appeared again, so from then on no one dared to laugh about little Vergil again. Nero couldn’t help to gulp when hearing the story while Nico exhaled a soft ‘Aww’, though he had to admit that the image of the two twins taking care of each other was pretty cute to imagine. 

When they landed in their destination and abandoned the plane, Nero’s eyes snapped wide when seeing all the people who had gathered there after the news of _Devil May Cry_ attending the premiere spread. After all, one thing was to see a lot of people in a concert, which was relatively normal, and another that the arrival hall was completely infested by fans shouting hysterically the member’s names, to the point that the security of the airport had cordoned off the area to prevent people from approaching too much to the exits.

When seeing that, Morrison immediately arranged it so that the band could abandon the airport by a lateral exit devoted to the personal only. However, the fact that the walls were glassed made the people pinpoint them nevertheless, which provoked a new wave of hysterical, disappointed cries when the fans realized the group wasn’t going to pass by the hall. Vergil immediately followed Morrison without sparing one glance towards the reunited audience, but the others did greet the fans briefly, waving their hands while walking and throwing occasionally kisses that caused the noise to increase even more.

Nero was in the last line of the group, still staring at the crowd in disbelief, when he clearly heard his name begin to be chanted. His eyes snapped opened, especially when he managed to pinpoint a woman raising in the air a big print of the picture Lucia took of V and him in the last photo shoot, but before he could even assimilate what he was seeing, Morrison came back and took him by the arm.

“Come on, son, before they try to run after us”

While following the others directly to the underground parking, Nero thought the man was exaggerating, but he soon discovered that he wasn’t. He had barely entered the 7-seat car together with the rest when one of the security guards cursed before talking through his walkie-talkie, seconds before one of the garage doors of the parking opened and fans began to slip inside at risk of their own life, since they were entering by the exit the cars used to leave.

“Please, put your belts on”, Morrison warned from the driver’s seat, and for second time that day Nero had barely obeyed when the car began to move towards the exit. Nero and Nico jumped startled from their seats when the fans began to hit their hands against the car while continuing with their unintelligible shouts, and their shocked expression lasted until finally the car managed to abandon the parking and reached the street to take them to their hotel. 

“Holy fuck”, Nico exclaimed, voicing aloud Nero’s thoughts, because even if the vocalist had attended interviews already, she hadn’t had the opportunity to deal with the wild world of fans and groupies yet. 

“Yep, welcome to the jungle”, Lady joked, enclosing an arm around Nico to kiss her on the cheek, while taking her other hand between hers.

“Hey”, Nero was about to jump again when Dante sneaked his head between his seat and Trish’s one and addressed Nico and him from the main two seats, “you okay, kid?”

Nero nodded, since Nico was busy kissing Lady at the moment now that they were finally out of sight.

“Yeah”, he eventually said, before exhaling a still nervous laugh, “never been a fan of zombie apocalypses”

His comment made everyone laugh except Vergil, who was busy texting something with his mobile in the copilot seat.

“Wait, so are you telling me you never did that?”, Dante adopted a fake offended tone, “and you dare to call yourself a fan, kid?”

Nero half-closed his eyes at the guitarist before leaning forward, adopting a cocky smile.

“Well, old man, work hard and maybe someday I end crying your name like them”

God, he was _so_ screwed, he thought when Dante’s eyes shined for the obvious provocation while the others laughed even louder. Even Vergil turned his head back to look at his brother with a small grin in his face.

“I believe you lost this round, Dante”

Dante exhaled a resigned sigh, before smirking.

“Oh, I know, brother. But I plan to take my revenge in the next one”

Never a threat had sounded so promising to Nero’s ears, he thought while feeling goosebumps in all his body after Dante said that with a low, fake calm tone that revealed the guitarist’s urge of pouncing on him.

However, despite their initial intention of making a very first stop in the hotel bedroom, due to the traffic of the city when they arrived at the hotel restaurant it was past 3.00 p.m., so by then their sexual hunger had been beat by the basic one and when Morrison suggested to go have lunch, absolutely no one went against it. 

Morrison wisely was the one in ordering, to make sure the meal wasn’t excessively heavy because the premiere began at 7 p.m. and after it there would be a reception for the people who had been invited. Also, since they had been warned about the even on such a short notice, it had been impossible for them to get suitable clothes for it, which meant that immediately after lunch they had barely time to leave their suitcases in their respective rooms before entering the car again to visit this time the shopping district, in order to rent proper suits for the night.

Predictably, they spent most part of the remaining time there. Nero was glad when he didn’t need to wear a too formal suit, choosing a [nice shirt and a simple jacket](https://5.imimg.com/data5/WR/SA/MY-43102754/new-fashion-blazers-500x500.jpg) over his trousers. Regarding the ladies, Trish chose a [long, red dress](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1084/7742/products/H6A2084_2220x.jpg?v=1517977413) that accentuated her long legs and left her back on display; Lady went for a simpler, [short green one](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1052/3992/products/product-image-759849750_2400x.jpg?v=1541943881) that that any person would avoid to wear in November except her, who always managed to be hot; and as usual, Nico preferred to choose a combination of [pants and top](https://aritzia.scene7.com/is/image/Aritzia/large/f19_10_a06_75626_18008_on_c.jpg) who was stylish but comfortable. About Dante, the guitarist managed to find a really nice [garnet suit](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2562/9688/products/1d16d730-c520-41f3-bdd4-f5bf266f23f1.jpg?v=1544610053) that the man decided to wear with a black shirt, though he strongly refused to wear a cravat, preferring to leave the first buttons loose as usual (thing that Nero always thanked). And finally, the one who surely caused more trouble was Vergil, since it took the bassist almost an hour to choose a [blue suit](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41QI36BHMsL.jpg) that fulfilled his standards and that ‘ _did not make him look like a simple employee of a shop_ ’. And yes, he said that aloud, which forced Morrison to offer a frozen, awkward smile to the poor, patient sales assistant in charge of helping them. 

Against all odds, at 6.57 p.m. when Morrison parked the car next to the area were [the premiere](http://www.redcarpetsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/PremiereRedCarpetStepRepeat3.jpg) was taking place. Nero gulped when seeing again so many attendants, photographers and fans gathered there, waiting for them to stand on that red carpet to be the focus of attention. He was forcing himself to abandon the car after Nico and Lady when he realized Morrison wasn’t making any attempt to go outside.

“Wait, you aren’t going?”

“Yes, but just to the projection”, the old man turned his head to look at Nero, smiling when seeing this one’s reluctance to leave the car, “do you want to make me company?”

Nero’s whole face illuminated.

“Can I?”

He couldn’t hold inside a relieved sigh when Morrison nodded without hesitation. At that moment Dante, who had left the car already, approached Nero’s window from outside.

“Hey”, detecting something happened, Dante’s expression was more serious when talking to Nero, “everything okay?”

“Of course”, Morrison talked before Nero could have time to think about an answer that didn’t make him sound stupid, “but I need Nero to accompany me to complete his registration since he is not a direct component of the group, so we’ll join you in the cinema”

Even if Morrison was the one talking, Dante’s eyes kept locked on Nero’s face all the time, looking at him inquisitively. Realizing that the guitarist wasn’t too convinced by Morrison’s made up excuse, Nero offered Dante a playful smile.

“Make sure to save me a sit, old man.”

Dante relaxed slightly when hearing his petition, but his eyes kept being more serious than usual when finally answering with a ‘Will do’ followed by a wink. Nero waved his hand towards the group when Morrison started the car, laughing when seeing Nico approach her index and forefinger to her eyes before pointing at him with them, letting him know with that simple gesture that she wasn’t forgiving him for abandoning her even if she couldn’t be in better company.

“Let me guess: not a fan of attracting all the views”

Nero snorted softly, scratching the back of his head with certain embarrassment.

“Yeah, and neither one of big parties or events”

“Liar. I know for certain you have attended to a good number of concerts”

“Hah, yeah, but it’s not the same to be at the other side”

Nero’s emphatic protest made Morrison laugh.

“I know, son. It takes time to get used to this. Even Patty felt occasionally overwhelmed and she was part of this since she was little”, Morrison looked at him through the rearview mirror, “so imagine what is like to suddenly live this with just a month experience.”

Nero snorted again, but this time he smiled while following the joke.

“I bet it’d be kinda shocking”

Morrison chuckled, beginning to enter the parking of the building.

“It is. And it’s more: I’m sure that all the members of _Devil May Cry_ felt like that at some point of their career”, Morrison averted his eyes for a moment and rectified, “well, I lie: I don’t recall Dante or Lady feeling too bothered about it because that’s the advantage of not thinking too much, but still they saw the others go through that. And that means …”, Morrison looked at Nero again, “...that there isn’t any necessity of hiding your discomfort from them. Because it’s something perfectly logical and I’m sure they can help you with it”

Nero exhaled a sigh and nodded. Morrison’s words made him remember what Dante said to him in the private plane, about his problems not being exclusively his anymore, and he guessed it wouldn’t hurt to actually live up to the advice from then on.

“Okay”, he smiled at Morrison again, “thanks”

Morrison simply nodded, satisfied with Nero’s new disposition, before finally parking the car. While Morrison absented himself to deal with his usual agent obligations, Nero contacted with Kyrie and V to let them know everything was going alright. Under Kyrie’s insistence he agreed on taking a picture of how he looked, obtaining several hearts coming from her as an answer and a simple ‘Decent enough’ from V that he decided to interpret as: ‘Cool as hell’. 

He lost track of time while messaging with his friends, so when Morrison came back he was surprised to discover that almost 20 minutes had passed since they arrived and that finally the premiere guests were entering the [cinema](https://content3.jdmagicbox.com/comp/warangal/dc/9999px870.x870.1219928471g4i9d3.dc/catalogue/big-cinemas-mattewada-warangal-multiplex-cinema-halls-qkpo8wy.png). 

True to his word, Dante had saved the left seat for him, and when Nero carefully entered the row of seats without Dante noticing it, he remembered in time that kissing Dante as a hello was completely out of question, so he contented himself with startling the guitarist by dropping next to him.

“Hi again"

Dante huffed softly because of the scare before talking.

“So, did the registration go well?”

The guitarist’s tone was pretty casual but his smile didn’t reach his eyes, which told Nero that he hadn’t bought Morrison’s previous excuse at all.

“Yeah, more or less”, he answered, knowing that there was no time for a longer explanation, “I’ll tell you more about it later”

The guitarist nodded to himself but didn’t add anything else, since at that moment the room went dark and the initial credits appeared on the screen, announcing the start of the movie. Nero had never liked realistic dramas, and the summary of two people cheating on each other with all the imaginable angst in the middle was far for being his cup of tea, so he found himself yawning more than once during the movie. In fact, he would swear that Dante had dozed off a couple of times, the only ones who kept an appearance of polite interest being Trish and Vergil sitting next to Dante, since Lady and Nico spent practically all the movie whispering despite the subtle jabs the drums player gave to the first. 

After the predictable dramatic ending, Nero politely applauded together with the rest. The host then announced that they would proceed to the reception taking place a near hotel, and that the music video would be displayed there in an hour or so.

“Hey, Nero”, this one had barely stood up from his seat when Nico rapidly approached him, almost tripping over Dante in the process because of the heels she was wearing, making him be as tall as Nero, “don’t you dare to leave me alone with the pros again. They may be used to smile at everyone but my mouth hurts already--shit!”

Nero managed to catch Nico in time before she fell back, so from then on and during the small trip to the hotel, which was a 5 minutes walk, he didn’t release her at any moment, keeping an arm around her waist while she settled her hand on his shoulder to have better support.

“Damn, I deeply admire the gals for wearing these torture devices”, Nico cursed for hundredth time, looking behind them where the rest of the group was talking to unfamiliar but surely famous people, “and damn, look at them: how can they talk to strangers so easily?”

“Practice makes perfect I guess”, Nero commented, offering Nico a playful smile, “you’ll see: in no time you will be a heels lover and the master of making conversation”

Nico barked a laugh while playfully hitting Nero with her hip, thing that wasn’t a good idea because she lost balance making them be about to fall between laughs.

When they arrived at the hotel they were guided to an enormous room that had been arranged with multiple round tables that were beginning to be filled by variated appetizers. 

“Quickly, let’s go get one!”, Nero heard Lady say behind them. The keyboards player practically ran towards one of the [tables](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b7/76/d1/b776d192f26bcdbe6575c9e764bd02d7.jpg) and without waiting for any indication she immediately assaulted one of the appetizers trays, so Nero and Nico didn’t hesitate in doing the same.

“You are aware that these tables are meant to share, right?”, Trish commented with a resigned smile when she and the twins approached the table too. Vergil took a glass of wine while Dante observed with attention the tray to pick the surely bigger appetizer from it.

“Oh damn, this foie is awesome”, Nico almost orgasmed, approaching the toast to Nero’s mouth, “here, take a bite.”

Nero did so and hummed effusively, agreeing with the vocalist. 

“They are going to think we are poor starved souls”, Vergil said coldly while taking an elegant sip of his wine, causing Dante to be forced to swallow before being able to talk.

“Hey, we just appreciate the good food. And besides, after all that drama we need some extra energy”

“Pffff, oh yes. Too much tragedy for me”

“Lady, dear, you spent the whole movie talking. I’m not sure if you should give your opinion”

“Hey, all the times I looked at the screen there was someone crying or about to, so I can say that much, hah!”

“I agree. The only character I liked was the protagonist’s best friend.”

“Oh, really?”, Lady inquired looking at Nico with a playful smile, “didn’t know that brunettes with short hair were your type”

Nico smiled seductively at her.

“Well, you know now”, she said with a wink. 

Nero was about to circle the table to leave the ladies with their flirting when Dante appeared next to him.

“So”, Dante began to say, “about what happened when arriving at the premiere...”

Nero couldn’t help to feel a little nervous when Dante brought up the topic, even if he knew there wasn’t any reason for it. He was about to admit that the registration was obviously a lie when the man talked.

“...I’m sorry”

Nero’s eyes snapped wide when Dante said that, before continuing talking with a serious tone.

“In the car I kinda realized that you were nervous, but I didn’t know you felt so uncomfortable with this stuff”, Dante made a wide gesture with his arm before exhaling a sigh, “if I had known, I wouldn’t have made you come with us. So, just for the record, if you prefer to stay at Red Grave when there is a similar event, I promise not to insist so much--”

“Hey”, Nero interrupted Dante, because even if the guitarist acting serious while dressing like that was kind of a turn on, he didn’t like one bite the apologetic component in the man’s voice, “you didn’t _make_ me do anything, okay? You just told me to come with you, and I agreed. And I don’t regret being here”

Dante looked at Nero with half-closed eyes, still not very convinced.

“Are you sure?”

Nero snorted.

“Yeah, I am. I admit that seeing all those people and so many cameras around was a little…”, he remembered Morrison’s words, and decided to be sincere about it, “...overwhelming. I mean, a month ago I was fixing sinks and stuff, and now there are people who knows who I am, and who call my name while keeping a fucking photography of me trying to pose sexy, so I guess I still have to get used to it. But…”, Nero looked at Dante with a confident smirk, “...I will. And when that happens be ready, old man, because I plan to steal the attention of all the cameras”

He took a sip of his wine while still looking at Dante, who was now smiling after the way he had ended his sentence, and Nero felt in Dante’s expression that in case of having been alone, the guitarist would have probably kissed him quite intensely. Sadly, they weren’t.

“Sorry, kid, but I am like the good wine: the older, the better”

Nero huffed, but he was glad that Dante looked like himself once again. 

“Dante~”

Both Nero and Dante turned around when the guitarist’s name was called, and Nero couldn’t help his heart from skipping a beat when seeing Gloria approach, dressing in a short, white dress that didn’t leave much to the imagination. It was evident that the woman just intended to talk to the guitarist, so after offering the woman a brief smile he took his leave, not having even time to say goodbye to Dante since the woman began to talk eagerly to him.

Since Trish was amicably talking with an old man that looked pretty important and Vergil was busy scanning the room as if he was waiting for someone, Nero decided to join Nico and Lady again, who had moved to another table to try different appetizers. He had left his empty glass on the table and was about to approach them when, suddenly, he felt a soft tap on his shoulder.

He turned around with a frown, ending face to face with a dark-skinned young man with curly hair that was smiling at him with way too much familiarity.

“I wasn’t sure it was you but yep: that frown of yours is pretty recognizable”

It took Nero a second to connect the dots, and when he did his eyes snapped wide opened.

“Wait, Louis?!”

The guy in front of him began to laugh and he joined him while hugging him tightly.

Damn, among all the places where he could have found his first love, it had to be in a damn movie premiere.

Life surely was curious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the end of the chapter wasn't planned that way, but when I reached 9k and counting I decided to split it here ^^U ~~guess who is going to be a little jealous in the next chapter...~~ :D


	17. Movie Premiere (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank godness I decided to split the chapter in two because this second part came out with 7k words xDDD  
> Louis is heavily inspired in [this character](https://66.media.tumblr.com/513dca43d5448b044e25173ab360c2c8/tumblr_pdo25azSKn1x3tii8o1_1280.png) from Walking Dead Telltales Games so that you can better imagine it :)  
> Hope you enjoy some jealous!Dante and smut among other things ;)

“Oh my god”, Nero separated from Louis to look at him properly, still not believing his ex was there, dressing with a more formal suit than his that contrasted with his always wild curls, “fuck, how much it’s been?”

“I don’t know, man”, Louis said with the same tone of disbelief, “three years maybe? No, wait, two: last one was in...”

“...that concert in Florida, yes, when you made me lose the bus.”

“Hey now. It was your fault for picking such an early ticket.”

“Ehm, no? I’m pretty sure it was _your_ fault for convincing me we had time for a last drink.”

“Oh, no, then it was _your_ fault for trusting me when you know I’m terrible at time management.”

Nero tried to look annoyed when Louis smiled triumphantly after saying such a boisterous lie, but eventually a laugh escaped him. He didn’t realize how much he had missed Louis until that moment, which was certainly a pity because he was really fond of the guy.

They met for the first time when he was 18 and went to his first concert to see _Devil May Cry_. It was the first long trip he made on his own, and his luck provoked that the driver of the bus he was going to take was a total asshole. The man said he couldn’t go in because his printed tickets were too blurry and couldn’t be accepted, but Nero realized immediately the driver was trying to take advantage of him being young to make him pay for the trip again.

After trying to convince the guy without any success, he was about to punch the asshole for real when Louis, who was a year older than him and happened to be in the same bus to go to the same concert, intervened. The guy surely had a way with words and with amicable but also firm arguments convinced the bastard to accept Nero’s tickets, by beginning to talk about rules and regulations Nero had never heard about (and that later discovered Louis had made up in order to get him out of trouble).

That incident together with an 8 hours trip and the fact they both were fans of _Devil May Cry_ were enough to make them become close friends in a matter of a day. In fact, Nero could affirm without a doubt that Louis had been the first guy he had fallen hard for. Hell, he had been his first in many things, real kiss and sex included which, by the way, happened the night of the same concert because that was what happened when adrenaline, chemistry and hormones were mixed after an already unforgettable night.

Eventually they had parted ways because first, Nero’s place was, at least at the time, in Red Grave and Louis was unable to remain much time in the same place, and second, Nero really sucked at distant relationships, but even after breaking up, their friendship remained, and they kept meeting several times whenever Louis came to visit. Then time played its curse, and the messages became less and less frequent until they simply stopped coming, but Nero still found himself remembering the guy sometimes. And considering how happy Louis looked to see him, it seemed that it had been the other way around too.

“So, what the hell are you doing here?”

Louis placed a hand against his chest in a fake offended pose.

“I can’t believe it. You haven’t recognized me in the movie?”

Nero’s mouth snapped open.

“Wait, did you appear on it?!”

Louis exhaled a long patient sigh, extracting his mobile to search something on it.

“This is enough reason for us to stop being friends, you know?”

Nero got closer to Louis so that this one showed him a clip of the premiere movie, in the part where the protagonist was clubbing with a friend. The clip barely lasted 10 seconds and when it finished Nero was as confused as the start, which made Louis’ expectant expression turn into a resigned one.

“You haven’t seen it, right?”, Louis sighed with patience, replayed the clip and stopped it at second 6, “there. The guy in the back”

Even with the frozen footage, it took him a moment to recognize Louis playing the bartender role.

“I can’t believe you didn’t realize. It was such an outstanding critical role.”

Nero began to laugh when hearing Louis’ ironic tone, before palming his arm.

“Hey, but it’s great! It’s the first step to become an actor, as you wanted.”

Louis chuckled, nodding before storing the mobile back in his pocket.

“Well, initially I was going to play the role of one of the friends.”

“Oh shit, really?”

“Yeah, but the producer eventually decided they had already covered the coupon of black guys for the movie and decided to change me.”

“You have to be kidding me…”

“Sadly, I’m not. But anyway, the director was super sweet and still included me as an extra to have an excuse to invite me here. Now she is working on a short series and, if everything goes according to the plan, we will begin to film in two weeks.”

Nero smiled widely, pressing Louis’ shoulder softly.

“I’m happy for you, man. You have worked extra hard for it.”

Louis smiled warmly.

“Thanks, Nero. It’s still a secondary role but hey, it’s a start”, he looked at him with curiosity, “and now your turn: what the hell are you doing here?”

Nero mimicked Louis' previous offended gesture.

“So you didn’t recognize me in the last concert of _Devil May Cry_?”

The way Louis’ jaw hanged slack was as funny as he imagined it would be.

“ _WHAT_?!”

“Well, although maybe you didn’t watch it--”

“OF COURSE I did. I may not attend all of them but I never miss one.”

“Okay, then that’s enough reason to stop being friends, you know?”

“Hey, don’t steal my words! Besides, I’m sure you’ve just made this up because I watched it from start to end and--”, Louis’ eyes opened at their maximum, signaling at Nero, “wait. Wait, wait, _wait_ , oh my god, it was you, right? The guy that joined them at the end!”

While Louis got all hysterical Nero searched for the video to show Louis the exact moment of his embarrassing apparition.

“Holy shit”, Louis let out an astonished laugh before looking at him, “so you work with them now. Man, I’m _so_ jealous right now. And how are they?”

When he was about to answer a young woman that he recognized as one of the movie actors called Louis from a bigger group, in order to tell him they would be leaving in 15 minutes to go to another place.

“Okay, I will join you in a bit”, after answering Louis grabbed his arm with force, a pleading expression on his face, “please, you have to introduce them to me.”

Of course, Nero couldn’t say no to a fellow fan, so with Louis muttering hurried, enthusiastic ‘ _Oh my god_ ’s he first approached Nico and Lady to introduce them to his friend. It was rather funny to watch the ‘I-always-know-what-to-say’ Louis almost babbling, especially when meeting Trish, who had always been his favorite. When Nero cautiously approached Vergil, the man simply nodded towards his friend, but Louis was one of those who considered Vergil’s cold attitude sexy and such a brief interaction was enough to make him fanboy.

“And now about Dante…”

Nero looked around to search for the guitarist, who was still talking to Gloria. Or, better said, Gloria was talking to him while Dante threw occasional and not very discreet glances towards Nero, who frowned when detecting a tension on the guitarist’s body that definitely wasn’t there when he previously spoke to him.

“Wow”, Louis muttered, gulping lightly, “he is even more handsome in reality than in pictures.”

‘Tell me about it’, Nero thought, remembering how damn nervous he was during his first interactions with Dante and understanding perfectly what Louis was going through at the moment.

“Wait, wait”, Louis grabbed Nero’s arm and stopped, “are you sure we can interrupt him?”

He suppressed in time a laugh. He’d die to see Louis' face in case of learning he and Dante were way closer than they let it show, and that therefore he could approach him without any reservation.

“Yeah, I’m sure we can.”

With Louis still grabbing his arm, he approached Dante and Gloria.

“Sorry to interrupt, but my friend here is a great fan of _Devil May Cry_ and wanted to meet you.”

If Gloria was bothered by the interruption, she definitely hid it well, excusing herself and offering Dante a last smile before approaching other guests. Nero’s suspicions about something being wrong with Dante were confirmed because the smile the guitarist offered Louis was definitely forced, though probably just someone who knew Dante well enough would notice that.

“Hey there”, Dante offered Louis a hand, “nice to meet you.”

And then, when Louis shook Dante’s hand, something clicked, and he remembered a similar interaction happening some time ago, but with V instead of Louis.

At that time Dante’s corporal language and tense aura had been exactly the same, which meant that, unless he was reading something terrible wrong, Dante was feeling jealous, and he was being kind of a jerk for considering such a fact exciting instead of stupid.

“...and anyway, I’m rambling”, by when Nero paid attention to the current conversation, Louis had already finished explaining in detail all what he loved about the band, “thank you very much for your time and I really hope to be able to attend your next concert.”

“Thanks for the support, kid. You won’t regret coming to watch us”, Dante said with his signature wink, and Nero knew he shouldn’t enjoy the way Dante’s eyes stared at his hand when he placed it on Louis’ shoulder, but he nevertheless did.

“Come on, I accompany you outside.”

Completely unaware of Dante’s clear annoyance, Louis waved his hand goodbye before walking next to Nero, exhaling a long sigh when they were far away enough from Dante so that this one didn’t hear them.

“Oh man, definitely confirmed: he is hotter in a close view.”

Nero hummed to show he agreed, not daring to say anything aloud that could make Louis suspect something about his relationship with the guitarist.

“It’s been awesome to see you”, he said when sincerely when they were close to the exit, causing Louis to smile.

“Same. But damn, we have to catch up! It’s been years since we talked. Literally. How long are you staying in the city?”

Nero shook his head with certain disappointment.

“Not much. The group has an interview in the morning and then we take a plane in the afternoon.”

“And you are attending it?”

“Pffft, nah. I hate that kind of things.”

“Then we could meet! And going for a coffee or something.”

Nero couldn’t help to imagine Dante’s frozen smirk when learning about Louis’ suggestion, but that didn’t stop him from accepting it. After all, jealousy was an understandable thing, but ultimately you had to trust your partner and accept they could meet with other people, even ex-lovers, without any risk of compromising your relationship.

“That’d be cool. Though you choose the place, because I know shit about the city.”

Louis exhaled a laugh.

“Yeah, it’s on me.”

After a little pause Louis talked again, his tone taking a hint of playfulness that he immediately recognized.

“Also, I guess you are staying with the band, but my hotel is really close. So, if you get tired of the party, or maybe want to continue it elsewhere...”, Louis took one of Nero’s hands and casually slid his thumb across his fingers, his brown eyes still fixed on his clear ones, “...I’ve heard that the guy of room 307 is pretty funny, and handsome, and clever, and despite the fact that sometimes he talks a lot, he definitely can do much more than running his tongue.”

Nero exhaled a laugh, perfectly understanding what Louis was suggesting and not being specially surprised by it, since even after breaking up some of the meetings they had shared had ended with them under the sheets.

Of course, his situation couldn’t be more different now, so while pressing softly Louis’ fingers he shook his head with an apologetic smile.

“Yeah, I’m sure the guy of that room is as cool as you say, but this time I’ll have to pass on the offer.”

Louis nodded to himself, looking at him with a knowing expression.

“You are with someone, right?”, Nero found himself nodding, which made Louis show a curious smile, “just out of curiosity, it’s V?”

“ _HAH_!”

“Okay, I guess that’s a no”, Louis looked at Nero hesitantly, “but the meeting still stands?”

He nodded without hesitation.

“Hell yeah.”

Louis tried to get more details about his boyfriend but when his coworkers hurried the guy to go, he gave up for the moment. They interchanged their new phone numbers and after agreeing on meeting the next day around 11 a.m. they both hugged again as a goodbye.

Nero waited until Louis abandoned completely the hotel to come back with the rest, with a small smile still adorning his face. Dante had come back to the table Lady had kidnapped and was talking to Trish, although both of them were focused on Vergil standing a couple of meters away from them. Automatically, the others’ interest caused Nero to also pay attention to Dante’s twin, who didn’t look too happy but exactly the opposite: eyes narrowed, jaw tense, and knuckles white while sustaining a glass of wine that threatened to break at any moment for the force the man was applying to it.

Curious of what could be causing such a reaction in the always apparently calm bassist, Nero followed Vergil’s gaze until stopping in two persons talking almost at the other side of the room. The first one was Saya, who was also dressed for the occasion, while the second was a Japanese man that Nero guessed was an actor or an idol by looking at his flamboyant clothes. Nero honestly didn’t see anything suspicious that seemed to indicate that Saya or the man had more than a pure relationship of friendship, but when the poor soul suddenly placed a hand on Saya’s forearm to continue talking, Vergil’s reaction was immediate: he left the glass of wine on the table in a brusque gesture that was rather uncharacteristic of him, making some red drops stain the white table, and with elegant but determined steps he approached the pair.

He had never seen someone jump so much as the Japanese man when Vergil interrupted the conversation by glaring dangerously at the stranger, causing this one to immediately remove his hand from the woman’s forearm as if it suddenly burned. Vergil then turned to Saya, who seemed anything but worried by Vergil’s attitude, and after interchanging a couple of words the bassist guided his supposedly secret fiancée out of the room by placing his hand on her lower back, leaving the man behind finally breathing again.

Nero blinked a couple of times, not understanding how no one but the group had noticed the obvious sexual tension that was surrounding the pair and that could be feel from where he was. He then approached Trish and Dante, since Nico and Lady seemed to be absent at the moment.

“What the hell was that?”, Nero inquired, causing Dante to shrug.

“Vergil being his usual jealous self.”

Because of the guitarist’s comment, a silence fell upon them.

A silence that Nero didn’t dare to break, but that Trish definitely did after smiling knowingly at Dante.

“Really?”, Trish’s eyes traveled from Dante to Nero, and then back to Dante once again, “ _just_ him?”

With that amused comment Trish subtly took her leave. Those three words spelled in her usual soft tone made a familiar tension settle between them Dante and him. They both remained silent at first, as if not wanting to be the one in bringing the topic even if they both were aware of it, but eventually it was Nero the brave one.

“What did Trish mean?”

He spoke with an over casual tone that, he knew, didn’t hide the fact that he perfectly knew the answer. However, he kind of wanted Dante to say it, although he wasn’t sure the guitarist would be willing to admit such a thing. Once again, the guitarist managed to surpass his expectations by letting out a sigh before adopting a tone that tried to sound natural but that failed completely.

“Well, I guess I _kind_ of felt that way too when seeing you talk to your friend.”

Nero debated internally if he should try to push things a little or not.

Eventually, he decided to go all out for it.

“Ex-boyfriend.”

Dante’s expression barely changed, but Nero felt the tension between them get thicker.

“Oh.”

Nero had to suppress a satisfied smirk when Dante let out that monosyllable in a way that made him look incredibly similar to Vergil for a moment. Yep, it had been confirmed: Dante was also the jealous type, no matter how the man tried to deny it.

“Well, I guess that explains the whole flirting thing.”

This time, Dante’s comment really took him by surprise.

“What the--He wasn’t flirting!”

Dante snorted.

“Nice one”, his tone was ironic, almost sarcastic, which made Nero exhale a brief laugh.

“Dante, I tell you he wasn’t flirting.”

“And I tell you I have flirted enough during my life to detect when someone is doing it”, Dante took as sip of his wine before talking again, his eyes not leaving Nero for a moment, “and I’m not blind either. I saw the way he held your hand.”

Nero hadn’t honestly given that gesture more importance, but he exhaled a purposely exaggerated ‘ _Ooh_ ’ that caused Dante to half-close his eyes.

“Yeah, well, _that_ could have been flirting, since he proposed me to spend the night with him after that. Do you want some?”

Nero accompanied the last question by reaching for a couple of canapés from the table to offer one to Dante, who was simply staring at him in astonishment after he threw the bomb in a conversational tone. Dante looked at the canapé without taking it and then at him again, with an expression that was half-curious and half-annoyed.

“Aren’t you enjoying all this a little too much?”

Nero took a bite of the canapé and after swallowing he tilted his head to the side, looking at Dante with fake innocence.

“Enjoying what? To make _you_ jealous for once after having watched you fool around and kiss other women during this past month?”, Nero smirked widely, “yeah. Of course I am.”

Dante’s eyes opened a little wider before smirking.

“Then I hope you can handle seeing me all passionate with Gloria when the music video is displayed.”

It was Nero’s turn to half-close his eyes when hearing Dante’s casual, provocative tone, but he recovered almost immediately.

“Nah, don’t worry. You can be like that with as many women you want, because behind closed doors...”, he dared to approach Dante a little without changing his expression to whisper the next sentence in his ear, “...I know my name is the only one you moan in bed.”

Nero’s new grin threatened to split his face in two when his first serious, seductive comment made Dante hold his breath momentarily. He separated once again and had to force back the impulse to bite his bottom lip, because even if he had seen that lustful light in Dante’s eyes before, this time it was more intense. _Way_ more intense.

“Excuse me for a moment, kid”, Dante left his glass on the table, “I think I may have drunk too much so duty calls.”

Nero frowned slightly confused when Dante passed by his side without adding anything else. He was getting worried about having read everything wrong and that Dante was actually pissed off when his mobile vibrated in his pocket. He rapidly put the second canapé in his mouth to have both of his hands free and reached for his mobile.

His heart skipped a beat when seeing he had a message from Dante, his pulse accelerating and anticipation settling in his body when reading the succinct text.

 

_> > **Dante (9:27 p.m.)** \- bathroom upstairs in 5 min_

* * *

It took all Nero’s self-control to wait instead of running towards the designated place.

When he had checked the hour almost ten times in his mobile and three minutes had passed, he eventually gave up and began to walk with a faster pace than usual towards the stairs. He passed by several guests in his way. Some of them greeted him and he answered back even if he didn’t know how the hell they were, and not that he particularly cared since his mind could just focus on one thing at the moment: reaching the fucking bathroom.

It took him more time than it should to find the correct door because the hotel was pretty luxurious and all the rooms of the [corridor](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/b8/07/da/corridor-to-rooms.jpg) looked alike. When he did, he knocked tentatively, and when no one answered he decided to simply enter.

Before he could even process what was happening, he had been pinned against the public bathroom [sink](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/luxury-hotel-public-toilet-14303359.jpg) by an undeniably aroused Dante who didn’t waste any time in devouring his mouth like a starving man. Nero’s excited groan for been wanted so damn badly was hopefully muffled by Dante’s tongue. The guitarist’s hips pinned him more against the sink to begin to grind against him, but his brain was still coherent enough to push Dante lightly back.

“Lock it”, he muttered against the guitarist’s lips, causing this one to exhale a short, breathless chuckle.

“Good point.”

Dante separated him briefly to put the bolt of the door before resuming his desperate kissing.

“Making out in bathrooms is going to become a thing or what?”, Nero managed to let out before moaning softly when Dante began to suck his earlobe.

“Yeah, as long as you keep being such a tempting brat.”

His stomach clenched when, after saying those ragged words, Dante reached down to unbuckle Nero’s trousers.

Oh shit, Nero thought, holding his breath. Could it be that Dante was planning to--

Dante exhaled an amused laugh, probably guessing what was going through his head for the mischievous smile that passed to adorn his face.

“No one said we were just going to make out, right?”

All Nero’s blood traveled south when Dante suddenly dropped to his knees, proceeding to unzip his trousers and lower them down together with his underwear so that his half-erected member was freed from its confinement.

Contrary to the teasing Dante had put him through that morning, this time the guitarist didn’t waste any second in taking a hold of the base of his member and lick a long trail from base to tip, without averting his clear, playful eyes from his face.

Nero exhaled a broken ‘ _Fuck_ ’ before grasping the sink counter with both of his hands, his head hanging back slack and mouth agape for the sudden stimulation. _Holy shit,_ he could only think when Dante’s tongue rolled tentatively around his tip, in a way that was still too feathery but enough to make his blood pump. He honestly wasn’t expecting that his first blowjob would happen with them hidden in a hotel bathroom but like hell if he was going to complain or suggest to stop.

“Hey, kid. Eyes down here. You don’t want to miss the show, do you?”

All his body was asking him to get lost in the sensation of Dante’s tongue playing his magic as usual, but he forced himself to open his eyes to obey. He didn’t regret doing so when seeing that Dante didn’t look better than him, since he was probably affected too by his honest reactions.

At that moment Dante finally took the tip of his member in his mouth, causing Nero to immediately reach for the guitarist’s grey hair. The movement was automatic and Nero wasn’t sure if Dante would like to be grabbed like that, but when the guitarist let out an approving groan while continuing taking him in little by little, he remembered the man’s kink, so he didn’t have the least hesitation in grabbing Dante’s hair with more force, though without pushing against his mouth yet.

“Dante…”, Nero warned with a light strained tone when seeing that Dante kept swallowing without having the least intention of stopping, “Dante, careful with-- _ngh_!”

Nero had to bite the back of his hand not to moan loudly when Dante grabbed both of his hips and began to bob his head back and forward with a steady rhythm, practically releasing his member before taking him in almost to the hilt. God, Dante’s mouth wrapped around him felt even better than he had fantasized. Damn, if he didn’t know that Dante had been straight until meeting him, he would doubt that this was the guitarist’s first blowjob. Although he didn’t know why he was surprised: the previous night should have made him realize already that Dante was a natural in the sex department.

At some point, his hips began to unconsciously seek Dante’s mouth, which allowed the guitarist to release one of Nero’s hips to reach down between his legs. Without stopping the bobbing of his head, Dante unbuckled his suit trousers and began to stroke his own member, which was practically erected, Nero noticed. The combination of Dante dressing so formal while giving him oral like a pro and while masturbating caused Nero to approach his limit embarrassingly sooner than usual. His furrowed brows and the fact that his bottom lip was grabbed between his teeth betrayed his need to come, which made Dante stop briefly.

“You close?”

Nero nodded shakily. He was about to push Dante back and reach down to finish on his own when the guitarist surprised him by deepthroating him, making him exhale a surprised gasp while his legs trembled.

“Shit, Dante…”, he hissed, but his desperation for achieving release and Dante’s willingness to let him come just like that made his initial reluctance vanish.

Taking a fistful of Dante’s hair, he began to properly move his hips, the knuckles of his other hand white over the bathroom counter while soft, muffled whines escaped him. The grunt Dante let out when he yanked his head lightly backwards to better fuck his mouth made Nero regret not having done it sooner, but by then he was way beyond his limit and a mere dozen of thrusts were all he managed before finishing with Dante’s name playing in his lips, the force of his orgasm so intense than he almost joined Dante in the floor, his legs feeling like jelly.

God, now he understood the stupid expression of sucking someone’s soul through their dick. Dante had practically done that now and it had felt fucking amazing.

With his breathing beginning to normalize again, Nero observed through half-lidded eyes at Dante drying his mouth briefly with the back of his hand. The man then raised to the floor again with a proud smile on his face before leaning forward to kiss him when they were at the same level again.

Nero returned the kiss clumsily, tasting himself in Dante’s mouth. He opened his eyes again, who had closed when Dante’s lips joined his, and exhaled a contented chuckle that made Dante’s grin grow even more.

“That good, hah?”

Nero snorted softly, but he couldn’t deny what it was evident. He was thinking in a way to praise Dante that managed to be teasing at the same time when Dante kissed him again. He felt Dante’s hand moving between them, and realizing that the guitarist hadn’t achieved his release and planned to do it by simply stroking his member, an idea popped in his mind.

“Wait.”

Dante frowned confused when Nero stopped the kiss and turned around. Now he was facing the mirror, but due to the fact that they were of the same height he didn't get to see Dante’s expression when he let his opened pants and underwear hang loose down his thighs, though he heard Dante gulp behind him when seeing his ass exposed.

“Nero, what are you--”

Nero’s answer was to grind back against Dante, which made the last exhale a surprised grunt when feeling his member briefly sandwiched between Nero’s buttocks. Energy ran through Nero’s veins again when hearing that sound coming from Dante, so he turned his head to the side to throw the guitarist a heated glance over his shoulder, while leaning both of his hands on the counter and on either side of the sink.

“What? Cat got your tongue again?”

Dante let out a breath and, _finally_ , caged him against the sink, making Nero’s whole body shiver when feeling the guitarist’s (sadly covered) torso against his back, his fingers digging on his hips in a tight grip.

“Not a cat”, Dante snarled against his ear, “just a brat too sexy for his own damn good.”

Nero didn’t have time to appreciate the compliment because at that moment Dante began to rut against him, forcing him to bite his lip again when feeling that thick member sliding between his buttocks, the guitarist’s muffled groans sounding in his ear causing his already softly member spasm, wanting to come back to life again.

As Dante’s slams turned rougher, Nero began to regret not feeling them inside.

He knew it was risky. He knew they were already having difficulties in keeping the level of noise low. He knew people could suspect if they were absent much longer. He knew at any moment someone could need to use the bathroom, forcing them to get presentable and abandon it at any second.

But fuck, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Dante, wait.”

Nero felt a wave of affection towards the guitarist when despite this one’s need and ache for release, he immediately stopped, talking next with an edgy, raspy voice.

“What’s wrong, kid?”, Dante exhaled a broken gasp when Nero reached back to take a hold of the guitarist’s member, aligning it against his entrance, “damn it, Nero, don’t tease me like that--”

“It’s _not_ teasing”, Nero snarled, turning his face to kiss Dante hard, his tone bordered to sound begging, “I want more. I want _you_.”

Nero accompanied his words by pushing back until Dante’s member was nudging at his ass, causing the guitarist to grunt against his shoulder with want.

“God, Nero.”

For a moment Nero thought that Dante was going to enter him immediately, and the arousal fogging his mind made him consider the idea extremely enticing. (Un)fortunately Dante, surprised him by reaching down the back pocket of his pants to extract a recognizable small envelope.

“Shit, you weren’t lying when saying you were born ready”, Nero commented while reaching back to begin fingering himself, causing Dante to chuckle.

“It’s just me or you sound a little disappointed?”, Dante inquired with curiosity, his fingers replacing Nero’s ones, which made him exhale a soft sigh while beginning to push back against the guitarist’s digits.

“Kind of”, Nero admitted, whining when Dante grasped his prostate when curling his fingers. He heard Dante exhale a deep breath before feeling the man’s mouth nipping his ear, which made him exhale a new soft sound.

“I would love to fuck you raw, but that would get both of us killed in case of staining these suits.”

Despite the first part of Dante’s sentence made Nero’s stomach clench, he couldn’t help to chuckle when hearing the end of it. While Dante ripped open the envelope and covered his member with it, he was about to retort that his shirt would have to go directly to the wash machine nevertheless, since he could already feel it sticking to his body, but his words were replaced by a single, relieved ‘ _Yeah_ ’ when Dante got a hold of his hips again and began to slowly sink into him. Dante plunging his tongue inside his mouth to initiate a dirty, deep kiss managed to muffle his noises as Dante’s thick member continued spreading him open. Shivering for feeling so full, Nero whispered a curse against Dante’s lips when the guitarist began to shallowly thrust inside of him, with slow but deep movements.

“Shit”, Nero exhaled brokenly, letting his head fall back against the guitarist’s shoulder when this one increased the pace almost immediately, after seeing Nero was more than ready for it, “oh shit, Dante _._ ”

“Oh, so crying my name now?”, Dante teased against his ear in a husky tone that made the back of Nero’s hair stand, “I guess I’ve worked hard enough to gain it.”

He exhaled a breathless chuckle when realizing Dante hadn’t forgotten his previous comment.

“I’m pretty sure I haven’t cried your name ye-- _yes_ ”, Nero’s speech was interrupted by a moan when Dante grasped his prostate dead-on in the next thrust, “fuck, Dante, _there_.”

“Now you did”, Dante purred with satisfaction, keeping that angle from then on without fail.

Dante’s slams turned deeper as one of his hands traveled up his chest to graze one of his nipples through the thin shirt, causing him to arch his body towards the contact while pushing back in coordination with Dante's powerful onslaughts. The guitarist’s need for release became more and more evident with each broken spelling of Nero’s name against his ear. He was pretty sure that the only thing that was stopping Dante from completely bending him to fuck him with ruthless abandon was the fear of them being unable to hold back the noises, betraying what they were doing.

His sweet spot being mercilessly abused by Dante’s thick, round tip and the fact that he was extra sensitive after having come some minutes ago made impossible for Nero to prevent his moans at some point. He reached back with his right hand to take a handful of Dante’s hair, forcing the guitarist’s mouth against his in a final attempt of muffling them.

“Not gonna last”, Dante warned with a strained tone that made evident the guitarist had been holding back his orgasm for a while now, “so bend a little, kid. Wanna see your face when I come.”

Until hearing Dante, Nero had completely forgotten about the damn mirror in front of them. Shit, he really looked wrecked: pupils blown, mouth half opened, lips glistening with saliva for all the kissing, and cheeks flushed for the heat surrounding them both. He did as Dante had indicated him, the new position allowing him see Dante properly, and fuck if Dante’s blissed, sex dazed expression wasn’t a good contrast with the fact the man hadn’t even removed his jacket or black shirt, which now adhered to his body marking his pectorals in a way that made Nero internally drool.

“Damn it, Nero”, Dante grunted appreciatively, causing him to groan as well because of the shorter but rougher thrusts that followed the guitarist’s words, “damn, I’m gonna--”

Probably the fact that he tightened around Dante at that moment pushed the man to the edge, but Nero thought the way Dante hissed his name with his eyes shut closed was extremely sexy and worth to see. Dante languidly undulated his hips back and forward to empty completely inside him, flopping after that against him.

“Hey, careful”, he protested half-heartedly when he was about to fall over for the extra weight, causing Dante to chuckle while depositing a soft apologetic kiss to the back of his head. Dante then carefully slid from him and discarded the used condom on the waste bin while Nero incorporated to pull up his underwear and pants. He was beginning to buckle up his belt when Dante’s arms passed to enclose around him from behind in a gentle way that had little to do with the passion he had displayed moments ago, but that made his heart accelerate nevertheless.

“You know, I’m pretty sure this isn’t the moment to bring this up. But about Louis, you said you were together, right?”

Nero was surprised when hearing Dante’s question. He turned around, half sitting against the sink to face the guitarist, and decided to answer honestly.

“Yeah, we dated for a while”, Nero looked at Dante without understanding, “why?”

Dante leaned his weight on his right leg, shrugging slightly.

“I was just thinking that seeing you talking to him like that, so carelessly and without having to be careful about who may see you or not…”, Dante looked at Nero inquisitively, “...are you sure you don’t miss that kind of relationship?”

Nero exhaled a patient sigh before shaking his head.

“Look, Dante, I told you already: of course it’d be nice to be more in the open, and not having to care about stupid rumors, but if I have to choose between a more normal relationship with someone else and a secret one with you...well, we have just fucked in an hotel bathroom, so I think it’s evident what I’ve chosen.”

Dante began to laugh when hearing Nero’s playful come back, before leaning forward to kiss him slowly. He sighed in content during it, enclosing his arms around Dante’s waist and smiling when seeing him smirking as usual, with a hint of relief this time.

“I guess Vergil is right when saying that thinking is not one of my strong points.”

Nero chuckled.

“Maybe you should accept already that your brother is right more times than not.”

Dante stuck out his tongue at him very maturely before kissing him again playfully.

“Come on, before they begin to miss us.”

After they did all the humanly possible to look presentable again, Dante opened slightly the door and looked outside discreetly to make sure the path was clear.

“Okay, I think we can--”

Nero frowned when Dante interrupted himself.

“What?”

Dante turned his head to look at him with a confused expression.

“I think someone is spying the corridor from another room”, Nero frowned while Dante separated from the door, “check it for me. The second room on the right.”

Nero took Dante’s place, focusing on the door the guitarist had mentioned, his eyes opening slightly wider in recognition.

“Uhm, Dante…”

“Yeah?”

“I think it’s Vergil.”

It was Dante’s turn to blink while changing places with Nero once again, who was already suppressing a laugh for the rather ridiculous situation. Dante reached for his mobile and marked a number, confirming Nero’s suspicions about the identity of the hidden, clumsy ninja of the opposite room when a familiar voice exhaled a curse at the same time that a close mobile sounded.

“ _Yes?_ ”

Nero and Dante were about to laugh when hearing Vergil’s low, annoyed voice.

“Bro? Is that you hiding in room 103?”

“ _...Is that you hiding in the bathroom?_ ”

“Yeah, me and the kid. I guess Saya is with you?”

“ _...Maybe._ ”

“Okay, she is there for sure. But how the hell have you entered a room?”

“ _I’m sorry, but that is nothing of your concern_. _Do you see someone in your side?_ ”

“Nope, it’s empty.”

“ _Then I suggest to put an end to this pointless conversation and meet in the corridor._ ”

“Yeah, good idea.”

“ _Then hang up._ ”

“No, dear, _you_ hang up.”

Vergil muttered a resigned ‘ _Idiot_ ’ that Dante certainly deserved before the connection ended. Nero observed from his hiding spot at the brothers meeting on the corridor. Vergil looked pretty composed but his hair was slightly tousled and there was a lipstick mark on the side of his neck that Dante pointed out. He was about to chuckle when Dante licked his thumb to remove his brother’s mark, causing Vergil to snap Dante’s hand away with a click of his tongue, removing it himself while the guitarist shrugged and followed him.

Dante winked at Nero when he passed by the bathroom door before finally abandoning the corridor. Nero waited his good five minutes this time before abandoning his hiding spot. He was about to come back downstairs when he heard a familiar voice, this time feminine, cursing through one of the doors of the perpendicular corridor. Frowning with curiosity, Nero approached it and opened it, causing Nico inside to shout in surprise, which made him shout too.

“Fuck, Nico!”

The woman exhaled a relieved sigh and punched his arm.

“Man, you scared me to death!”

“What the hell? I wasn’t the one hiding in…”, Nero looked at inside the room, “...a broom closet?”

Nico exhaled a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, well, the ladies bathroom was full and we couldn’t enter any of the rooms, so we were out of options.”

Nero hummed, smiling knowingly when finally noticing Nico’s flushed expression and the way her top was a little wrinkled. Now he understood why he hadn’t seen Nico and Lady before: they had been as ‘busy’ as him and Dante. And as Vergil and Saya. Damn, now he realized, Trish and Morrison were surely saints, putting up with their horny partners like that.

“By the way, I need your expert help”, since there was no one on the corridor, Nico removed the top she was wearing, ending just in her black bra, and turned around to give her back to him, “I think the bottom hook broke. Can you fix it?”

Nero obviously wasn’t an expert in the matter, but he guessed a piece of underwear wouldn’t be that complicated to repair.

He was mistaken.

“Shit”, he muttered while Nico leaned her forearms against the closet door and arched her back so that he had more room to maneuver with the metallic piece that had probably bent as a result of a forceful pull, “damn, tell Lady she is more careful the next time.”

“I know, dude. She is like a beast, not that I’m gonna complain though.”

Nero was about to say he didn’t need as many details when, finally, the hook came back to its original position, allowing Nico to adjust it.

“Awesome!”, she hugged him, “the best handyman ever.”

Nero tapped her naked back softly with a resigned smile, waiting for her to put her top and jacket again to return downstairs, without noticing they hadn’t been the only ones in the corridor during the last three minutes, and neither that a lens had been pointed at them for the most far away end of that same corridor since then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some things :P
> 
> First, why the hell did it occur to me to pair a young DMC4 Nero with a character from Telltales games? Honestly, no clue xD But my mind is weird sometimes and it just happened hehehe.
> 
> Second, it’s not said in this chapter but I love to imagine a rather horny Vergil managing to keep his cool to force opened a random hotel room xDD
> 
> And third, the updates of this story may not come once a week as usual because I’m writing another DMC fic at the same time, but I will definitely plan to keep with this story :P 
> 
> Thanks a lot for the support (more than 300 kudos, thank youuu <3) and see you in the next update :)


	18. Tabloids

“Well, thank goodness I picked up a place close to your hotel.”

Nero exhaled a breathless laugh when Louis welcomed him with those teasing words, after he managed to reach the cafe barely in time after a good run.

“I’m sure you’ve missed having to wait for me.”

Louis chuckled shaking his head, stopping leaning against the wall to gesture inside with his head. The [cafe](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f4/f6/bc/f4f6bc5b13ef6223532641dab43f1c23.jpg) was rather small but comfy, and was almost full with the exception of the table situated closer to the door. They sat there, Nero facing the window and Louis in front of him. He must have looked rather out of breath because a waitress suddenly appeared with a glass of water for him. She was about to leave when Louis ordered, not leaving Nero even time to open the menu.

“Hey, how the hell you know what I want?”, Nero protested.

“Oh, with you it’s easy”, Louis signaled his order on the menu, “always go for the option with more food.”

Nero snorted, smiling while taking a sip of water because Louis had been correct in his assumption, but this time he had an excuse for ordering so much. After all, he hadn’t even had time to have breakfast since he had abandoned the hotel room in a rush while Dante was still sound asleep, and the hotel where they had stayed wasn’t precisely small so he had been forced to run for excessively long corridors. He had caught an accidental glimpse of Vergil leaning on the frame of his room, with his pajama pants on but his torso exposed, kissing Saya goodbye. The bassist threw a glare at him that Nero simply answered with a cheery ‘Good morning!’ that at least Saya returned with a small nod and a smile. Seriously, he didn’t understand how those two had managed to keep their relationship in secret for so many years, because they weren’t precisely subtle.

“Okay, shoot: who is the guy?”

Nero exhaled a long resigned sigh when Louis leaned his crossed arms over the table, looking at him while eagerly waiting for his answer even if he was still catching his breath.

“Really, dude? We haven’t seen each other in two years and that’s all you care about?”

Louis didn’t fail for his reproaching tone and smiled widely, leaning his chin against the palm of his hand.

“Sorry, but the other topics can be discussed by message. However, _these_ are the things that have to be talked face to face, so that I can detect if you’re lying or not.”

Nero rolled his eyes, crossing his legs while smiling with amusement. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t expecting that Louis brought up the topic, and he had been clever enough to have his answer ready.

“Okay, so this guy--”

“Wait wait, before you begin, can I tell you my theory?”

Nero looked at Louis skeptically, approaching the glass to his mouth again.

“Well, you can try, but after meeting one day I doubt you are able to deduce anything.”

“Is it Dante?”

Nero spat all the content he had drunk.

He was so shocked for Louis’ words he hadn’t even had time to think in a proper come back. He stared at his friend with his eyes opened, finding him with the same shocked expression.

“No way…”

“ _Shit_.”

“No - _WAY_ …”

“Okay, before you begin to panic--”

“Dude, are you _serious_?! I-It was just a crazy assumption! Are you really going out with Da--?!”

Nero was quick enough to lean over the table to snap a hand against Louis’ mouth, who kept mumbling against it.

“Can you _please_ stay quiet for once?”

Louis nodded effusively and when Nero released his hand, his friend still looked completely astonished. He exhaled a long breath and scratched the back of his head, realizing the harm was done already.

“Yes, we are together”, he said in the lowest tone he could, talking rapidly again when seeing Louis opening his mouth, “but Lou, you absolutely _can’t_ say anything about it, you hear me?”

“Of course I won’t! But oh my _god_ ”, Louis leaned both arms on the table and his face on his hands, “it-it’s crazy!”

Nero couldn’t help to chuckle, understanding Louis’ stupor.

“Yeah, tell me about it”, he looked at Louis in confusion, “but what the hell made you say that? I mean, you barely saw us talking!”

“Well, that’s…not entirely true: when we said goodbye and I was about to come back with my friends I realized I had forgotten my bag in the wardrobe, so I came back to get it and I saw you talking. And well, sadly I don’t know Dante that much but I can definitely say when _you_ are interested in someone”, Louis exhaled an incredulous laugh, “that’s why I mentioned D... _that guy_ : I wanted to check if you were making a move on him but damn, man, I wasn’t expecting you were already dating!”

Nero laughed nervously, exhaling a sigh. He guessed he had been lucky that it had been Louis the one who had discovered it, but from then on he had to be more careful. After all, now the situation of him eventually being asked about his relation with Dante entered the realm of possibility, and if his fucking reaction was to stare like a robber being caught red-handed, the secrecy of their relationship wouldn’t last.

“God, you better not have other plans, because we’re not leaving this place until you tell me _everything._ ”

When hearing Louis’ final words, Nero exhaled another laugh and he was about to protest for being kidnapped when, out of nowhere, a woman with dyed blond hair and excessively flashy clothes approached the table.

“Excuse me, are you Nero from _Devil May Cry_?”

“Uhm…”, Nero looked at her with a frown, “...yeah, I a--”

He had barely confirmed the woman’s question when, fast as lightning, a man that seemed to be waiting for her call appeared next to her and began to film both Louis and him with a video camera, while the woman suddenly put an audio-recorder against Nero’s mouth.

“Margarethe Simmons, ‘ _Young Promising Stars_ ’ magazine: what can you tell us about the last rumors involving the group?”

Obviously, the whole situation had caused that all the people of the cafe, practically full by then, immediately focused his attention on their table, which made Nero not pay enough question to the question.

“What?”

The woman formulated the next questions with a polite voice but talking so fast that Nero had difficulties to follow her, mainly because she began to talk about a certain ‘Nicoletta’ and it took him a moment to realize she was referring to Nico. At some point of the woman’s verbiage, Nero found himself standing up thanks to Louis, who had dragged him up by his arm.

“Sorry, we just remembered we had another appointment.”

The fact that they were suddenly leaving didn’t stop the woman from continuing with his questions, which now were also addressed to Louis in order to discover what was his relation with Nero. Because of the small ruckus, the other clients had begun to take pictures and videos of them, some of them going as far as shouting questions about _Devil May Cry_. The next moments were a little confusing for Nero: the last thing he fully remembered was listening to Louis apologizing for leaving without ordering and also telling the woman with the recorder that they hadn’t time to answer any questions with a polite but cutting tone, and then suddenly he was walking down the nearest alley with his friend, in order to avoid the busier streets.

“God, they are worse than vultures”, Louis exclaimed, stopping when Nero did so to lean against the wall, “you okay, man?”

Nero was about to nod but eventually shook his head in utter confusion.

“What the fuck did just happen?”

Louis sighed, situating next to him.

“Paparazzies. Some of them would sell their souls in order to get a scoop.”

“But how the hell they knew where I was?”

“Well, they probably discovered the hotel where you and the others were staying, and waited for any of you to go out.”

Nero cursed. Since he wasn’t a fan of tabloids, he had never stopped to think how some reporters could get pictures of famous people eating, or going to the beach, or simply walking their dogs. Now he did, and damn if it wasn’t creepy as hell.

“I honestly don’t know what the fuck she was asking”, Nero confessed, pushing back his hair just to calm himself because his hair was too short to need to comb it, “I just heard something about a relationship, and pictures, but that’s all.”

Louis shrugged, looking as lost as him, but he hadn’t the chance to think much about the matter because at that moment his mobile began to sound. He frowned when seeing the name on the screen before picking up.

“Morrison?”

“ _Son? Where are you now?_ ”

Morrison was talking in an even calmer tone than usual, as if wanting to make sure he wasn’t going to put Nero nervous, which obviously caused the opposite effect.

“I’m 5 minutes away from the hotel. I was meeting with a friend. Why?”

Morrison didn’t give him many details: he only commented they were holding a meeting in Trish’s room and that he should join them. When Nero hanged up, he was even more nervous than before, which made Louis place a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, do you want me to accompany you to the hotel?”

Nero shook his head, forcing a smile that he hoped was reassuring.

“Nah, thanks. I’m fine”, he exhaled a sigh, “sorry for ruining the--”

“--date?”, Louis’ playful comment made Nero look at him with an ‘ _Oh, really?_ ’ amused expression, “it’s a joke: like hell if I hold a candle against your current boyfriend.”

“Oh, so you’d have tried something in other case?”

“Maaaybe.”

Nero rolled his eyes with a smile, hugging Louis next.

“Thanks for the help.”

Louis patted his back and separated.

“Anytime. But I still want to hear the whole story, you know?”

Nero chuckled and nodded.

“I’ll stay in touch”, Nero palmed Louis’ arm, “take care, Lou.”

He was about to turn around when Louis talked again.

“Oh, and a little piece of advice: the next time one of those people try to bother you, don’t be afraid of telling them to fuck off, because they always take advantage of being ‘polite’ so that you feel bad for being rude, sooo don’t be.”

Nero nodded and with a last smile he abandoned the alley.

He felt a little angry with himself for not having reacted better, but he guessed that no one was born known, so there was no point in beating himself about it. However, the next time he was assaulted like that without any reason, he _did_ plan to give those paparazzi a scope, consisting of him showing his middle finger while smiling to the camera.

* * *

In ten minutes he was in front of Trish’s room, taking a deep breath before knocking on the door. He waited for the drums player to day a soft ‘ _Come in_ ’, and when he did so he immediately knew he had screwed it up somehow, since Morrison and Trish, both sitting at the round table of the room, smiled at him too reassuringly, Vergil was next to the window with his arms crossed and his jaw tense, and Nico was sitting on one of the beds with an apologetic expression, being Lady next to her with a hand placed on the vocalist’s thigh. The only one who looked like usual was Dante, who abandoned his spot on the wall were he was leaning, to approach him with his usual nonchalance to greet him with a kiss.

“Hey, kid, no reason to be so tense. No one is going to bite you”, Dante whispered the next words with a playful tone, “except me, if you want.”

Nero snorted, feeling a little less nervous while proceeding further inside the room while Dante recovered his previous spot.

“So, what’s wrong?”

Morrison opened his mouth to answer but Vergil was faster in clicking his tongue loudly, while approaching the table.

“You can see it for yourself, Nero. Or should I say…”, Vergil grabbed the magazine Morrison was sustaining in his hand to throw it on the table, “...‘Nicoletta’s passionate lover’?”

Nero’s eyes snapped impossibly opened when focusing on the magazine, in whose cover there was a gigantic picture of him and Nico apparently having sex.

Or, at least, that was the first unconscious thought that assaulted Nero, even if he obviously knew that such a thing had never happened, but whoever that had taken the picture, capturing the moment in which Nero was fixing Nico’s bra in the premiere, had made sure that _that_ was the first idea that came to your mind when looking at it.

In the picture, Nico was leaning her forearms against the wall with him standing behind her, one hand on her right flank and the other on the back of her bra. The picture had been taken from a lateral side, and had captured the exact moment in which Nico was turning her head to the camera with her mouth opened. He also was in the middle of talking and the picture had been cut over their waists, surely to hide the fact that they had been fully dressed and to achieve the desired impact.

“Very subtle, Vergil”, Dante pointed out with a reproaching tone that didn’t affect the bassist one bit, while Nero kept staring at the picture still not believing it was there.

“As subtle as _them_.”

“Oh, sure, because the way you abandoned the room with Saya was super discreet.”

“Perhaps not, but I’m not seeing my image in any magazine.”

“That’s because you threatened to death to that reporter who took a picture of you two going for a walk, and obviously the news spread.”

“…Those are unfounded rumors.”

“Hah! Unfounded my ass: It’s the truth and you know it!”

“Guys, _please_ ”, Trish’s soft but commanding tone caused the twins to immediately shut up, “arguing won’t solve anything, alright?”

“Trish is right”, Morrison continued, “the pictures are already circulating on the net, so there is nothing to be done about it unless we want to risk it escalates even more.”

Nero came back to reality when hearing the old man’s words.

“Pictures? Wait, there are more than one?”

Lady nodded from the bed while Nico kept being uncharacteristically quiet.

“Yeah, some of them are of the premiere where you two are simply being...you.”

She picked her mobile with the hand that wasn’t on Nico’s thigh and after quickly typing something she passed it to Nero, who gulped softly when the simple search of ‘Nico DMC’ got a hundred of results, being the first of them the digital version of that magazine. He clicked on the link to see that the post showed several pictures of them both during the premiere: walking on the street with him holding her close, simply talking or interchanging canapés, though most part of them were different photos of the ‘fixing bra’ moment.

He gulped, not knowing very well which feeling among all the ones invading him at the moment had the upper hand: if anger for whoever asshole who had taken those pictures, or frustration for not having been careful enough and having let this happen.

Trish, who had stood up without him noticing, suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Take a seat, dear”, she guided him towards the bed in front of Nico, who seemed to be avoiding his eyes at any cost, and sat down next to him still with her hand on his shoulder, “it’s logical to be shocked.”

Nero felt his mobile vibrate. He had some incoming message coming from his shared group with V and Kyrie, but decided to check them later. After all, he could deduce what they were talking about.

“Is…”, Nico cleared her throat when her voice failed a little, trying again, “...is this going to affect the group in some way?”

“No.”

“Yes”, Vergil half-closed his eyes at Dante when this one glared at him, “should I remind you they are adults too? They have to know the consequences of their slip-up.”

“To be completely honest, the better answer is that we don’t know”, Morrison intervened with his usual serenity, “it’s true that the timing has been a little inopportune, since the groups nominated for _The Da Capo Orbs_ Awards were going to be announced soon and this misunderstanding can affect our presence there.”

Nero gulped, since currently those were probably the most important awards in the music world.

“But why is this going to affect it?”

“Because some people are not going to like that _Devil May Cry_ does not know how to behave in a premiere, and neither the fact that ‘ _the main vocalist can’t keep her slutty hands off her coworkers_ ’.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when hearing Vergil’s cutting comment.

“They say that in the magazine?”

Lady sighed, crossing her legs and leaning his free elbow on it to place her chin on her hands.

“Yes. And in other sites they don’t use those words, but that’s the idea that can be extracted from it.”

Nero gritted his teeth, his hands turning into fist while looking at Nico again to see her sitting in a too straight position, completely tense. Now he understood why Nico felt so down.

After a small pause, it was Dante the one who broke the silence.

“Well, we all have gone through this at some point”, he hooked his thumbs on his pockets, “and yeah, it’s true that it’s happened sooner than we were expecting, but leaving aside the fact that it’s not funny that people say bullshit about you, it’s _not_ such a big deal. And if we aren’t selected for the awards for that reason, honestly, they can fuck off.”

“Personally I agree”, Morrison immediately intervened while Lady muttered a definitive ‘ _Of course_ ’ and Trish rubbed his back soothingly, causing that the wave of affection Nero had felt towards Dante extended towards them too, “I have only mentioned the awards because, as Vergil says, it’s also important that you learn that this job is more complicated that it could seem at first glance, and that actions that you don’t give importance to can be purposely exaggerated and misinterpreted by others.”

Nero and Nico nodded obediently. He was about to apologize when Nico beat him to it, standing up rudely while talking with a light trembling tone that betrayed he was close to cry.

“It was my fault. I was the one who asked Nero to fix my stupid bra”, Nero’s eyes opened wide in stupor when Nico focused on him, looking even guiltier than before, “I’m sorry, bro, because of me you also appear in those photos.”

“What the hell, Nico, it’s my fault too!”, Nero protested, “and besides, I’m barely mentioned when you --“

“But the thing is you shouldn’t be mentioned _at all_!”, Nico exclaimed, “I’m the vocalist of the group so it goes with the position to stand shitty tabloids, but _you_ didn’t sign for this, so it’s not fair you are exposed like that!”

Nero stared at Nico wide-eyed, realizing that the entire time the woman was worried not because of what that news said about her, but because he had been involved.

“God, you’re such an idiot”, he snapped, standing up to hug her, which seemed to be the trigger so that Nico began to sob, the stress of the situation finally sinking into her.

“Hey hey hey, careful where you put your hands, you ‘passionate lover’!”

When hearing Lady’s fake angry comment everyone began to laugh, the only one who exhaled a light impatient sigh being Vergil.

“Well, sorry to be the one in stopping the fun…”

“Don’t be, brother, we are used to it.”

“...but…”, Vergil continued, ignoring Dante’s retort, “...we should prepare the answer we are going to give, because surely we are going to be asked about it in the press conference.”

“Oh, shit, you’re right. I had completely forgotten about that”, Lady said with a curse.

“Yes, they will ask for sure”, Trish exhaled a resigned sigh, “although maybe we could call them to say we won’t be answering questions related to this matter.”

“Or we are still in time to cancel it.”

Everyone looked at Morrison in disbelief, Nero and Nico included because everyone knew that John Daniel Morrison never allowed his protégés to fail to an appointment. _Never_. Even Vergil was looking at the agent without believing his words.

“Uhm...old man, are you alright?”, Dante asked cautiously, causing Morrison to sigh with patience.

“Yes, Dante, thank you for you unnecessary concern.”

“Well, you have to admit that this suggestion is something unprecedented”, Vergil intervened, miraculously agreeing with his twin.

“It also is the fact that not even two weeks have passed since Nico and Nero were officially introduced as members of the group and they are already suffering from this situation.”, Morrison replied, turning to look at them, “so, this time, I’m letting you take the decision.”

Nero and Nico interchanged a look, and when seeing that her previous guiltiness had been replaced by determination, Nero smirked, knowing already what Nico’s answer was going to be.

“Hah! Of course we are going”, she enclosed an arm around Nero’s neck, putting the other on her hip.

“Hell yeah”, Nero snorted, crossing his arms with a cocky expression, “if those assholes can run their mouths like that we can answer back to.”

After a short, lightly shocked pause, everyone began to laugh, except Vergil, who muttered a low ‘ _Oh, lord_ ’ when hearing their probably too effusive reply.

“That’s the spirit”, Dante said winking at them, “like hell if a couple of compromising pictures are going to ruin our reputation.”

“They are more than a couple.”

“Vergil, man, seriously…”

“What? I was pointing out a fact.”

While Trish, for third time, intervened to put some peace between the twins, Nero abandoned the room for a moment to call Kyrie and V, who as he had deduced had seen the rumors and were asking him about them. Or, better said, Kyrie was asking while V was reproaching him being so careless, though Nero didn’t mind because he knew it was his friend’s way to show his concern.

By when he finished calming his friends and also after answering Louis, who had also learnt about the news too, everyone was already coming back to their respective rooms to get ready, since they were leaving in 30 minutes for the press conference, so Nero rapidly returned to his own followed by Dante.

The door had barely closed and Nero was already undressing to take a quick shower when Dante followed him inside the bathroom.

“Hey, kid--”

Nero interrupted Dante with a firm kiss that took the man by surprise. Detecting the guitarist planned to deepen it, and knowing where that would lead in case of letting it happen, Nero reluctantly put a stop to it, knowing that, sadly, they hadn’t much time to waste.

“Yeah, old man, I’m okay”, he answered with an amused smile, knowing he had correctly guessed what Dante was going to ask when this one chuckled.

“Good then”, Dante said, looking more relieved, “but remember that you aren’t obliged to ask any questions you don’t want to.”

“I know, and also that I don’t have to get fooled by their shitty politeness.”

Nero finished undressing completely and entered the [open shower](https://www.homesupply.co.uk/pimages/l/Cassellie-CS-CS070.jpg), missing the way Dante frowned with curiosity while crossing his arms.

“You know more about this than I thought.”

“Yeah, well”, Nero turned on the water giving his back to Dante while beginning to wash his hair, “before I came back here Louis managed to give me a couple of nice advices about it.”

Nero heard Dante hum to himself, but since his eyes were closed so that gel didn’t enter them, he missed the guitarist also undressing on his own and silently slipping in the shower.

“Well, glad to know I was worrying for nothing.”

Nero didn’t have time to jump startled when hearing Dante whispering that behind him, his surprised curse turning into a full moan when Dante grabbed his hips and pushed his body flush against his also naked one while sucking at the side of his neck.

“Oh fuck”, he exhaled, arousal rushing south when feeling Dante’s front muscles rubbing against him and his member pressing against his lower back. He turned with a groan, meeting Dante’s mouth half-way as the guitarist pinned him against the shower wall, heatedly beginning to make out with him while grinding their bodies together.

“Dante…”, Nero honestly thought he deserved a fucking prize when he had enough self-control to push Dante softly backwards when realizing that this one planned to go down to continue with his ministrations, thing that he honestly wouldn’t have minded one bit, “...maybe you’ve forgotten but we have a meeting to attend.”

His words made Dante grunt reluctantly.

“I don’t know who’s the idiot who agreed going to it but I’m hating him right now”, Nero chuckled before accepting Dante’s next calm kiss, “but just for the record, you were asking for this.”

“What the hell? I haven’t done anythi--”, Nero stopped, exhaling an incredulous laugh, “oh my _god_...”

“What?”, Dante inquired way too defensively while beginning to wash his own hair, the way he was pushing it back while doing so making his similitude with Vergil more apparent.

“You _really_ are the jealous type.”

Dante stopped in the middle of pushing his hair back to remove the gel, half-closing his eyes at him.

“...I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I’m _not_.”

“Yes, you _are_.”

Nero should have known it had been a bad move to initiate a verbal battle when competition seemed to turn the guitarist on more than anything. However, this time when Dante kissed him fiercely again while caging him against the wet tiles, his previous resolve lost the battle, his hand rapidly travelling down between their bodies to begin to stroke Dante’s member as the guitarist did the same with his, their groans mixing together between kisses and teasing ‘I’m not’ - ‘You are’ that lasted after they both reached completion, panting in each other’s mouth.

Fortunately, by when a couple of soft knocks sounded on their door and Trish softly reminded they were leaving in 10 minutes, they both were already drying themselves.

“Well, nothing better to relieve stress before a press conference.”

Nero rolled his eyes and threw his used towel at Dante’s face before coming back to the bedroom to get dressed, knowing he was being kind of a hypocrite because the idiotic, satiated smile adorning his face was probably even bigger than Dante’s one.

* * *

Even if Nero had felt pretty confident when agreeing with Nico on facing the press, when finally being waiting for the more than 50 reporters to occupy their seats before having to sit at the main rectangular table, his heart began to beat slightly faster, and for the way Nico was biting her nails it seemed that he wasn’t the only one in feeling like that.

“Nico, Nero”, Trish whispered from the lateral door, “where do you prefer to sit?”

“Probably under the table.”

This time it was Dante the one who hit Vergil in the back of his head when hearing his proposal, although part of Nero didn’t dislike the idea entirely.

“Let’s leave Vergil in the middle”, Lady suggested, “that way he would have a better angle to kill stupid questions with his glares.”

“Good idea”, Trish agreed seriously, while Vergil’s left eye twitched and Dante muttered a ‘ _Just like that, bro_ ’ that gained him a hit.

After a brief discussion it was determined that Morrison and Trish would situate on the extremes of the table, next to Nico and Nero respectively, and with Lady and Dante next to their respective pairs. Nero smiled to himself, because even if no one said it aloud, it was evident that the distribution had been made to keep them ‘protected’, with the bassist being the main dangerous pillar.

“Alright, it’s time”, Morrison announced, offering a reassuring smile to Nico and Nero before leading the way.

Thinking for thousandth time that he had won the lottery by working with _Devil May Cry_ group, Nero waited in line just behind Dante while Morrison was the first in leaving the lateral door. Before following the bassist, Dante turned around and offered him a reassuring wink before entering the main room. He gulped subtly, but he entered after Dante walking with all the determination he could gather.

He had barely stepped in the room when the sound of flashes surrounded him, followed by unintelligible murmurs. However, when he sat at the table between Trish and Dante and the first softly tapped his knee before interlacing her fingers over the table, Nero managed to relax quite a lot.

“Well, it’s showtime”, Nero heard Dante mutter when, after a brief introduction coming from one the conference organizers, the reporters began to raise their hands like crazy in order to catch the group’s attention.

Since Nero was prepared to be pestered with questions from the minute one, he actually found himself relaxing a little when the questions that reporters began to ask were rather manual-like, about the group’s next projects, concerts and about the last photo shoot they made.

“Tina Rogers, ‘ _Free Nature_ ’ journal”, a woman was saying at the moment after standing up, smiling at the group in a rather sincere way, “first of all, I would like to thank you for making possible the reconstructions of several animal shelters in the city. I’m aware that you already participate in several charity projects but I think it’s the first time you were involved in one of this kind, so I would like to ask what prompted you to carry it out. Thank you very much.”

After interchanging some looks, it was Trish the one who decided to answer, softly pressing the button of his micro before beginning to talk.

“A really interesting question, Tina, thank you. Well, the idea of making the most of the photo shot to, somehow, try to encourage people to donate for this cause was born due to an arson taking place in an animal shelter in Red Grave.”

Trish explained more or less the decision of collaborating with the shelter but didn’t give any details about Nero being the author of the idea, not to focus the attention on him which he greatly appreciated.

However, the drums player’s efforts were for nothing because when a man around his fifties stood up and dug his eyes on Nero, this one immediately realized the question was for him.

“David Hudson, ‘ _Sports & Hobbies_’ magazine”, the moment the man began to talk, Nero knew he wasn’t going to like the question, since his voice had that petulant hint that he had got used to listen from previous clients when doubting his capacities, “so, Nero, could you tell us how much exactly you earn for working as a fixer for _Devil May Cry_?”

At least, the completely irrelevant question made several reporters look at the man with frowns. Nero saw out of the corner of his eye at Trish’ frozen smile and Nico muttering a ‘ _The fuck, dude?_ ’, which helped him be rather calm while answering in an almost nonchalant tone.

“Yeah, sure, after you tell us how much _you_ earn for asking this kind of questions.”

Nero finished the sentence with an innocent smile that provoked several laughs and the man’s dumbfounded expression. In their table, Lady wasn’t doing anything to suppress her laughs, and even if Nero didn’t dare to look at Dante he could perfectly picture the smirk that surely was in his face.

“Uhm...I’ll change my question”, the man said after clearing his throat, “could you please tell us what are your main tasks for the group?”

Since the man had changed to a way more polite attitude, Nero answered it with normality, explaining about the wings and the flying system of the last concert. The next couple of questions were for Lady and Vergil respectively, asking the first about the show she participated the week before the concert, and the second about the possibility of accepting a minor role for a vampire series that was pretty famous at the moment, question that Vergil answered with a cutting ‘ _I don’t have time to lose in teenager shows_ ’ that made the reporter sit while slightly trembling.

Nero was beginning to think that the press conference was going a lot better than expected and that maybe they had been worrying for nothing when a woman that he immediately recognized stood up in the middle of the seat lines, offering them an excessively wide smile.

“Margarethe Simmons, ‘ _Young Promising Stars_ ’ magazine. My question is for Nicoletta, who maybe is more receptive to bring some light to the recent pictures going around the net: do you have something to say about the fact that you and your partner were caught engaged in acts of sexual nature?”

Same as before, the woman managed to formulate such a long question in mere seconds, making impossible to interrupt her.

Despite no one changed position on the table, Nero could physically feel the whole group entering alert mode, and also see that the woman’s question had awaken up the interest of several other reporters of the same kind that hadn’t dared to bring up the theme up till then, but that were now more willing to do so.

“Yeah, actually I have a couple of things to say”, Nico surprised everyone by inclining more over the table to practically snap the last words, “first thing is that I’m a lesbian, so no matter how hot Nero present here is, I have zero sexual interest in him. And second, as dumb as it sounds, in those pictures that show us ‘engaged in sexual acts’…”, she accompanied the sentence by doing the comma gesture mockingly, “…Nero was only trying to fix my bra, thing that he did pretty awesomely, by the way.”

Nero had to bite his bottom lip not to laugh when hearing Nico’s brusque answer. Before sitting at the table, Nico had been nervous about how to act in case of the incident being mentioned, but it seemed she had found her answer during the conference: one hell of an answer that left everything pretty clear.

Apparently, the harpy, as Nero called her now internally, wasn’t satisfied with it.

“But in that case…”, the woman suddenly turned her attention towards him, “...if there is nothing between you two, why Nero, here present as you say, did not simply deny the rumors when being asked about it this same morning, deciding to run away instead?”

Nero’s mouth half opened when hearing the sudden question, which made the others look at him in surprise. He realized then that he had completely forgotten about mentioning meeting that woman. He also noticed that other reporters were taking notes of the woman’s words, so he was about to reply to avoid other possible similar questions when she continued, this time with an annoying triumphant tone that revealed she was proud of her invasive investigation.

“Also, as much as Nicoletta claims to be homosexual, there are other intimate pictures in which you clearly appear being all handsy with each other. So do you have a different opinion in this matter or…?”

 

“I think you have done enough questions in your turn, miss.”

 

The entire room fell silent when the woman’s speech was interrupted by Dante’s apparent calm intervention, though the way the guitarist was staring at the woman with no trace of his usual joking in his face made this one blink rapidly and exhale a small nervous laugh before continuing.

“Y-You are completely right, my apologies. However, if Nicoletta or Nero could answer that last question to completely clarify the situatio--”

“I don’t think there’s any need for it either”, Dante continued in the same smooth way that contrasted with his tense jaw and general posture, “Nico has already given her answer: there is nothing between her and Nero, and the picture was only a misunderstanding, so I believe we can move on to the next question.”

“But--”

“Also…”, Dante just needed to raise his voice a little so that the woman completely shut up, “...as a reminder, it’s true that some of the members of the group do not care about sharing certain personal information, such as myself or Lady here”, when being named the keyboards player waved her hand, causing Dante to smile for real at her for a brief moment before recovering his serious expression to look at the audience, “and also that up till now we haven’t given much importance to fake rumors because, honestly, it goes without saying that there will always be reporters stupid enough to make up stories in order to get the people’s interest. However…”

Nero felt a shiver travel down his spine when Dante leaned forward on the table, the shirt he was wearing adjusting to his arms for how tightly he was crossing his arms.

“...that doesn’t mean that we can’t take actions in case things get out of hand. We may be public figures, but we still have the right of keeping our private lives as such: private. And some behaviors, like taking pictures without permission, spreading them on the internet, _and_ harassing us when we are in our free time, are reportable”, after a brief pause, Dante offered the woman a charming smile that contrasted with the harsh fire of his eyes, “I hope this time we have made ourselves clear enough for you, Mrs. Simmons. Thank you for your intervention.”

After finishing speaking, Dante lied back against his chair again, leaning his chin on his hand with a completely relaxed attitude as if he had just talked about the weather. A rather intense silence fell in the room, just interrupted by the harpy gulping and slowly sitting on her chair as if she wanted to disappear from Earth, and even if the ambience was pretty tense, the whole table looked completely comfortable, the most satisfied among the group being Vergil, who was looking at his brother with a small, approving grin on his face.

After some seconds, and when seeing that the organizer didn’t know very well what to do, Morrison cleared his throat and with a smile encouraged to ask about the next album the group was preparing, putting everything into motion again.

From then on, no one else dared to ask anything about the premiere incident, but Nero was unable to pay attention to the next questions:

He was too busy crossing his legs as tightly as possible, while thinking about the most bizarre things he could come up in order to make his boner disappear.

* * *

“ _YOU’VE BEEN AWESOME, DANTEEE! AW - SOME ♥ ♥_!”

“ _Patty, hon, calm down!... BUT YES, YOU WERE!”_

_“And Nico being so confident was perfect too ♥ That bitch didn’t shut her up, hah!”_

“Patty, sweetie, watch that mouth!”

“ _Ups, sorry dad!_ ”

“ _Though she was a bitch._ ”

“Lucia…”

After the press conference was over and while Patty and Lucia were leaving the _Devil May Cry_ group deaf with their praises and getting on Morrison’s nerves as usual, Nero was also having a conversation with V and Kyrie, that looked more like them discussing on their own with him being a mere listener.

“ _You answered that idiot so well, Nero! He put such a stupid face, hihihi._ ”

“ _Your face when Dante intervened was rather priceless as well._ ”

“ _Aaaah yeeeees: he was soooo cuuuute defending you ♥”_

“ _Well, I don’t know if ‘cute’ was the word going through Nero’s head at that moment._ ”

Nero obviously protested when hearing V’s knowing comment, but the truth was that he was counting the hours to reach home.

In the flight back he had the same seats than in the first one, so he sat down between Nico and Lady. Even if he spent a fun time with the vocalist talking and joking while Lady dozed off, the time passed slower than in the first trip, and when they finally landed on Red Grave and Morrison rented a car to bring them to their respective homes, when he was asked about where to go he answered with a confident ‘ _Dante’s_ ’ that didn’t leave room for doubt, which caused the guitarist's eyes to open wide while not making any attempt of refusing.

After the press conference he and Dante had barely had time to talk, being busy reaching the airport in time not to lose the flight (as usual), so when Morrison stopped in front of Dante’s apartment with everyone (this time Trish included) playfully wishing them to spend a good night, the tension between them could be cut with a knife.

Still, Dante managed to make casual conversation while riding up the elevator, but the moment the guitarist introduced the key in his door and this one was half opened, Nero didn’t waste time in pushing Dante inside and press him against the door, slamming it closed in the process to begin kissing him with hunger, making Dante finally shut up to focus on more important matters, a.k.a get into his pants.

“Wow”, Dante exhaled when Nero decided to stop exploring his mouth with his tongue, nipping at the side of his neck while immediately beginning to unbutton Dante’s black shirt, “okay, not that I’m complaining but what’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing”, Nero tugged at Dante’s lower lip while his hands shamelessly roamed over the skin in display, “just an old man too sexy for his own good.”

Dante laughed, surely recognizing those words before being the one in initiating the next kiss, rolling back his shoulders to remove his coat but leaving his shirt on.

“I didn’t know that ‘the serious me’ would turn you on so much”, Nero felt Dante’s hands sneaking under his t-shirt and jersey so he raised his arms to allow the guitarist to remove the clothes more easily, “you sure you aren’t with the wrong twin?”

Nero huffed, turning their positions to begin to walk Dante backwards towards the sofa.

“Nope, I prefer the twin with less psycho tendencies”, he stopped for a moment, looking at Dante in the eye with a more serious expression, “thanks for the back up, by the way. It’s true you were awesome.”

Dante’s eyes opened more for a moment before showing one of those warm smiles that Nero was slowly getting used to.

“Wait a moment…”, his tone turned playful while settling his hands on his hips, “ _…_ you better not be doing this just to say thank you”

Nero rolled his eyes with a smile for Dante’s particular way of saying ‘You’re welcome’ before resuming where he had left it, licking around the hickey he had left under Dante’s jaw while grinding his hips forwards, making the guitarist shiver and laugh.

“Shit, kid, have some mercy on me”, Dante joked while Nero kept leaving mark after mark in his neck, “we have done it three times in 48 hours, this may be too much to handle even for me--”

Nero interrupted Dante’s mocking protest by shoving him back against the gigantic couch covering half of the living room. The simple gesture made Dante’s eyes glint with interest, but Nero had just started. Making sure not to avert his eyes from the guitarist, he positioned between Dante’s legs, bended down a little to place his hands on the man’s knees and, in a purposely slow movement, he dropped to his knees at the same he forced Dante’s legs to be opened. Nero felt his own member twitch when the action made Dante hold his breath while inhaling an aroused ‘Fuck’, biting his lower lip like staring transfixed at Nero loosening his jeans without averting his hungry gaze from him.

“Well, since you are so tired...”, Nero said while lowering down Dante’s underwear, liberating the guitarist’s already half-hard member, “...I guess that leaves me with all the work.”

Nero was glad not to avert his eyes while going down on Dante, which allowed him to witness the guitarist throwing his head back against the back of the sofa while hissing a husky ‘ _Yeah_ ’, hips automatically moving against his mouth.

After some bobs of his head Nero released Dante’s member in order to dirtily lick its side from top to bottom, mouthing at his testicles in the process, which made Dante exhale a surprised gasp while reaching down to grab his head when his tongue began to play with the too sensitive skin.

“God, kid, that tongue of yours is... _damn..._ ”

Nero smirked for the guitarist’s lack of loquacity, adding a sucking motion to make Dante curse in need again. Dante grunted again when he licked his way up in order to wrap his lips around his arousal once again. He looked upwards, feeling hot all of sudden when seeing Dante’s messy half-dressed state. He secretly thought the guitarist could look good on anything, but he doubted there was something sexier than that opened shirt showing the guitarist’s toned skin, and he would fight whoever who said the contrary.

“ _Nero_.”

Dante’s warning tone made him immediately stop. He saw Dante’s abdominal muscles tremble, hinting the guitarist was pretty close to come, and released his member with a last feathery lick around the tip. The taut skin was too tempting not to taste, so while Dante tried to compose himself Nero licked his way up across the guitarist’s torso, beginning in his abs and following up until reaching between his pectorals, where he deposited a bite before reluctantly abandoning the slightly sweated skin. When he was at Dante’s level, this one grunted almost animalistically, attacking his mouth fiercely while reaching down to fumble with Nero’s pants.

“Off. _Now_.”

A shiver travelled down his spine when Dante snarled that order in an octave lower than usual. It was the first time that he saw the guitarist so possessed by lust, and holy fuck if it wasn’t affecting him too. Removing his pants and underwear in time record, ending fully naked, Nero practically tackled Dante against the sofa to straddle his lap, their mouths connecting again with such hurry that their teeth almost clashed together.

“You still want it raw?”

Dante’s ragged question made Nero unable not to whine.

“Fuck yes”, he kissed Dante again while reaching between them to keep Dante’s member erected between them, beginning to raise his hips in order to position himself over it.

“Wait”, despite the want surrounding them both, Dante’s hands settled on his hips, stopping him from continuing pushing down, “shouldn’t we prepare you first?”

“I did it already in the plane”, he smirked when seeing Dante’s confused expression, “why do you think it took me that much to leave the restroom?”

Dante chuckled, equally impressed and satisfied.

“Well, I thought you were taking a--”

Nero felt Dante laugh inside his mouth when he rapidly interrupted his sentence with a hard kiss, suspecting what Dante was going to answer and deciding to stop him from doing so not to break the mood.

A couple of tentative grinds against the tip of Dante’s member were enough to make the guitarist almost crazy with want. Nero felt a wave of satisfaction when the guitarist couldn’t take the teasing any longer and exhaled an almost threatening ‘ _Nero_ ’, his fingers digging almost painfully on his hips though without forcing him to go down. Having mercy on Dante, and also because he himself was craving it badly, Nero finally complied, placing his hands on the older man’s shoulders while beginning to sink onto Dante’s member.

Nero felt Dante exhale a relieved, trembling sigh against his half-parted lips as he gradually accommodated Dante’s girth inside.

“Damn, kid”, Dante exhaled with a frown, eyes closed and breathing heavy.

Nero exhaled a soft laugh, beginning to slowly move up and down, up and down, the feeling of Dante’s thick, hot flesh sliding against his walls without any plastic in the middle making him feel numb with pleasure.

“ _Yes_ ”, incoherent sounds began to easily slips from his lips, “shit, _finally_.”

That last word spelled with such emphasis made Dante chuckle under him while opening his eyes again, his thumbs making soothing movements on Nero’s hips without thrusting up yet, thing that Nero thanked because in this position Dante’s member reached even deeper and he needed some extra time to get used to it.

“Didn’t know you wanted to do it without a condom so badly”, Dante teased, making the tip of his ears end red.

“No. I mean, yeah, I wanted it but...oh god, _that_ ’s the angle”, Nero interrupted himself, while directing his next rides to that place that set his nerves on fire, his palms settling on Dante’s exposed chest now, “I meant that... _ah_... I’m finally riding you.”

His words made Dante exhale a soft ‘ _Shit_ ’ while beginning to meet Nero’s movements, who were gradually becoming faster.

“Yeah?”, Nero gasped when Dante reached up with his right hand to begin to tease one of his nipples, arching against the contact, “and since when did you wanna give me a ride, kid?”

Nero cursed when Dante pinched the sensitive bud, feeling the guitarist’s other hand settle on his buttocks. He wasn’t sure if it was in order to have better leverage or because Dante simply liked to grope them, but he betted it was for the second.

“Since... _shit…_ since we made out in the van”, Dante’s cloudy gaze and the way the guitarist’s member spasmed inside him encouraged him to keep talking, hoping not to feel too embarrassed about it later, “I wanted to push you against the floor and fuck you... _ngh_...and before in the conference, _shit_ , I just could think about being alone to do _this._ ”

Nero accompanied the last sentence by impaling himself down onto Dante with harder bounces, making this one grunt, clearly aroused by his dirty talk.

“And how is it?”, Dante inquired with fake curiosity, his smirk proving he already knew the answer, “as amazing as expected?”

Nero smirked cockily and stopped his movements, his stomach clenching for the anticipation since he was pretty sure about the effect his next words were going to cause.

“Well, I thought you’d be more active”, oh _yes_ , there it was: that competitive spark in Dante’s eyes, “but I get that you’re reaching an age already so--”

He actually cried when Dante suddenly emerged from below to bite the side of his neck, beginning to pound up into him with vigor while dragging him down, the guitarist’s nails almost digging in his ass for the force he was using to grab him. Yes, it had been confirmed, he thought while beginning to mount Dante in earnest, meeting each one of his powerful moves with matching force. Definitely riding an almost-out-of-control Dante was as amazing as expected.

“One day, kid…”, Dante purred against his neck, his hands spreading him more open to slide inside and out of him more easily and faster, making Nero groan as his arms enclosed around the man’s shoulders, fingers digging on the silky, black shirt, “...one day I will stop falling for these little tricks, you know?”

Nero simply chuckled when despite his warning tone, he could feel Dante’s smirk against his skin. He spelled the next sentence in the guitarist’s ear, his tone provoking despite sounding breathless.

“We both know you won’t”.

Wanting to break the little control Dante could still have, he entangled his fingers in the back of his hair to pull it hard, biting at Dante’s earlobe. The combined actions seemed to hit all the right buttons, because with a feral groan Dante suddenly enclosed an arm around his lower back and, still inside him, brought them down to the floor, ending this time on the top with Nero’s back pressing against the fluffy carpet.

Nero guessed that considering their similar height and weight, it was easier for Dante to simply slide to the floor instead of flipping their positions completely over the sofa, but his reasoning didn’t go further since at that moment Dante’s hands hooked on the back of his knees to begin pistoning his hips, fucking him roughly against the fluffy, surely expensive carpet.

“Oh shit _yes_... _Dante!_ ”

Nero moaned, his body arching when at some point Dante released one of his legs for the sake of stroking his leaking member, painfully hard for a while now. His fingers clutched at the soft material under him while Dante’s thrusts dragged him back and forth against the covered floor, glad that the rug was under them or otherwise his back would surely protest later.

He forced himself to keep his eyes opened to see Dante going wild over him, his grey loose hair moving in synchrony with his thrusts, his face showing a strained expression that betrayed he was as close as he was.

“Dante…”, Nero bit his bottom lip when the knot in his stomach tightened even more after seeing the guitarist wrecked state, “god, Dante, I’m going to come.”

“Same here”, Dante exhaled raggedly, “can I--?”

Nero nodded shakily, understanding what Dante was asking without him needing to finish the sentence. His predisposition made Dante curse with arousal while releasing his other leg to dive down for a deep kiss, placing his free forearm next to Nero’s face.

“Damnit, kid... _ngh_ …”, Dante groaned against his chanting mouth without stopping rocking into him, feverish blue eyes meeting his own, “damn, Nero, I love--”

Nero’s heart stopped.

Because the last thing he had expected that night was to hear Dante’s last heated words.

And maybe it was his imagination but he would swear that Dante had stilled his movements for an extremely brief moment before gulping softly and finishing the sentence.

“--how you feel.”

Since Dante’s teeth sank on his neck in his most sensitive spot while continuing assaulting his prostrate like a pro, Nero didn’t have time to analyze the sensation that settled in his stomach after realizing the ending of Dante’s sentence wasn’t the one he had expected, the heat and his need for release overcoming everything else.

As Dante’s thrusts began to lose rhythm but gained strength, his hands passed to grab Dante’s now exposed ass to press him even more against him while bucking back erratically, Dante’s hand still tightly wrapped around his sensitive member, stroking it with vigor in time with his more and more hurried slams.

This time, it was him the one who reached his peak first while brokenly moaning the guitarist’s name, and probably the unconscious spasm of his inner walls around Dante’s member was the culprit of the guitarist filling him seconds later, grunting against his lips. Nero could count with the fingers of one hand the times he had let someone finish inside him, since leaving aside the safety aspect, cleaning afterwards was a pain in the ass. Literally.

However, when seeing the absolute bliss in Dante’s expression as he emptied completely inside him, Nero decided he wouldn’t mind to indulge him like this from time to time.

After orgasming, Dante collapsed over Nero, boneless, and even if the guitarist wasn’t precisely light, it didn’t ever occur to Nero to complain about it, automatically enclosing his arms around him to distractedly play with the back of his hair, his eyes closed as his heart normalized. They remained lying on the floor for almost a complete minute, simply coming down from the high of the pretty intense sex, Dante being the first one in reacting by softly kissing Nero’s shoulder before turning his head to the side towards him, going for a kiss that Nero immediately returned.

“I think you killed me.”

Nero snorted with a smile when hearing Dante’s labored statement.

“Well, there are worse ways of dying.”

Dante exhaled a weak laugh, incorporating a little not to be leaning all his weight in Nero, though still keeping over him.

“You have a point there”, Dante kissed him slowly, making him sigh as every time the guitarist decided to surprise him with those gentle but at the same time intense kisses, “but damn, you got me pumped up this time, you brat.”

Nero smirked up at Dante when hearing his impressed tone, not bothering to hide his satisfaction.

“Yeah, I’ve learned the trick to turn your savage mode on in bed: to tease you about your age. It’s 100 percent effective.”

Dante half-closed his eyes, but the goofy smile that adorned his face removed all the menacing aura of the gesture.

“Well, I guess that’s your way of asking to be fucked harder, so I won’t complain too much about it.”

Nero felt his cheeks burning when hearing Dante casual comment, realizing that his assumption wasn’t entirely mistaken, the realization gaining the guitarist a hit on the arm accompanied by a gruffly ‘Idiot’. Dante simply chuckled, kissing him briefly while beginning to slide out from him before stopping with a panicked expression.

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“I’ve come inside.”

“No shit Sherlock, really?”

“I _mean_ that if I pull out now it’s going to spill outside, and this carpet isn’t precisely cheap.”

“Well, you should have thought about it _before_ banging me on the floor.”

“Hey, you weren’t complaining a minute ago!”

“And I’m not: it’s _you_ the one who is complaining now.”

“...Point taken. But seriously, we need to move to the floor. I will lose the deposit if I return a carpet stained with cum.”

“Okay, but how exactly do you suggest to do it--what the _fuck_?!”

Nero exhaled a surprised shout followed by laughs when Dante enclosed his arms around him and rolled them over to reach the floor. He was still laughing for the ridiculous action when they finally stood up from the floor in order to take another long shower together, which obviously included intense making out and not another round because this time not even Nero had the stamina for it.

When later that night Nero closed his eyes while comfortably lying on Dante’s king-sized bed with the guitarist spooning him from behind, a contented smile adorned his face, since the day, which had begun a little chaotic because of those damn tabloids, had ended rather well. It was true that, from then on, he would probably be more known because of the whole press conference, and for the incident with Nico in the premiere, which surely would take some time to be forgotten. _But_ after seeing the group covering for them no matter what, and especially after seeing Dante fight tooth and nail for him, he knew he could definitely handle that new lifestyle that came with working with _Devil May Cry_.

So yes, he now felt at ease. Hell, he felt happy. And certainly, he couldn’t ask for more...

 

‘ _Nero, I love...how you feel_ ’

 

Nero’s eyes snapped opened in the darkness when those words, that he had forgotten up till then, appeared in his mind.

He felt his heart skip a beat when remembering that moment, in which Dante had looked about to say _those words_ that he himself had never said to anyone before.

With his heart beating faster, he shifted his body to look at Dante, feeling his peaceful breathing behind him, indicating him the man was deep asleep. He gulped softly, a part of him wanting to ask Dante…

...To ask him what, exactly? There was nothing to ask. And what if Dante had been about to say ‘ _I love you_ ’ in the spur of the moment and had changed his mind at the end? That didn’t change anything about them. It was obvious that they were good together. Besides, everyone knew that acts counted more than words, and Dante had proved to him several times that he liked him and cared about him, so it was stupid to give that much importance to something that Dante could have said but eventually didn’t.

Nero closed his eyes again with resolve, ready to sleep and stop wasting his time stupidly overthinking things because everything was going awesome between them.

Actually, as cheesy as it sounded, everything in his life right then was close to be perfect.

And like hell if he was going to risk to ruin it now that he had finally got it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was a little chaotic in structure xDDD since it began with light angst, followed by unexpected smut (yeah, that shower scene wasn't planned but it wildly appeared xD), followed again by a little more serious stuff, even more smut ( _that one_ was planned hehehehe) aaaand unexpected doubts coming from Nero, but I hope you have enjoyed reading the chaos nevertheless <3 <3
> 
> Also, in case you haven't noticed, I have already indicated how many chapters are remaining because we are approaching the end of the story. However, maybe there are eventually more in case a chapter ends being longer than expected and I have to split it (like this monster one which has 10k words because _I didn't know in which point to split it_ ). 
> 
> Oh, and finally, I thought it was too obvious to call the harpy 'Rita Skeeter' but that's exactly how I imagined her xDDD 
> 
> See you in the next chapter <3 ^^


	19. Those words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter couldn't be less suitable because it happens in winter when it's August and hot as hell xDD But it had to happen due to the story plot :P Hope you enjoy the domestic shenanigans despite that <3

“I still don’t understand why you weren’t included in the trip.”

Nero sighed with patience when V asked that from the sofa before beginning to cough in a way that, at least, sounded a little better than the past two days. He teared open a medicine envelope and spilled its content in a glass of water, entering next the living room where the poet was completely lying on the sofa, still dressed in his warmest (but still stylish) pajama and covered with as many blankets as they had managed to find in the house.

As usual, winter didn’t sit well with V and the fact that he had overworked the past week to reach his next deadline hadn’t helped, worsening the cold he had caught some days ago. Of course, V didn’t want to hear anything about going to a doctor and much less to an hospital for a ‘simple strong cold that affected him more than it should’, so Nero asked Morrison to stay in Red Grave instead of going the the next trip _Devil May Cry_ had planned, in order to keep an eye on V, with the risk of being killed in case the poet found out about it.

“Because, as I’ve told you like 10 times already…”, while V recovered from the brief coughing attack, Nero sat down on the sofa close to the poet, still using a spoon to dissolve the medicine in the water, “...they are going to record some kind of documentary and like hell if I was going to appear on it.”

Before V could keep pressing the matter with his founded suspicions Nero handled the glass to him, who glared at it while talking with a protesting tone that came out funnily childish.

“Do I really have to take that? I’m feeling rather better.”

Nero blinked, staring at V’s bloodshot eyes, even paler skin and at the red corners of his nose.

“Yep, it’s obvious just by looking at you.”

V rolled his eyes but seemed to decide Nero was right because he straightened on the sofa to accept the glass. He swallowed the content with difficulty, suffering a shiver while resting against the cushions again, returning the glass to Nero who placed it on the table.

“I hate this.”

“Same.”

Nero felt V weakly hit his back with his now flexed legs as a protest for Nero subtly accusing him of being a difficult patient, thing that the poet had always been since they were little. While Nero turned on the TV, Shadow, who had been eating until some seconds ago, approached to lie close to them. V let his arm hang from the border of the sofa to rub the panther’s back while Nero patted the animal’s head, making him purr as a result. Griffon was meanwhile on the living room table enthusiastically destroying one of Nero’s socks that he had stolen, but when seeing the affections displayed towards the feline he squawked and landed on the sofa, making jealous sounds to get the poet’s attention. While V softly rubbed the front of the crow’s chest with the back of his knuckles, Nero was about to try to rescue his sock from the crow’s claws when he received a notification on his mobile.

“Let me guess: Kyrie says she took a detour going shopping”, V guessed, since it had been a while since the woman had left to do some ‘quick’ errands and hadn’t returned yet.

“No, it’s Dante”, Nero said with a smile, looking at the selfie the guitarist had sent posing with Nico and Lady, him looking resigned while the ladies appeared laughing after having wisely invested their time by using some extra make up in him, presumably in dead times between shots of the documentary. He answered with an ironic ‘ _Working hard?_ ’ that Dante replied almost immediately with an ‘ _Always :D_ ’ that made Nero roll his eyes, the smile still in place. 

“When do they return?”, V inquired while Nero kept interchanging teasing messages.

“In two days”, V looked at Nero pointedly, causing this one to roll his eyes, “yeah yeah, I know. I have to buy him a present for Christmas, but what the fuck do you buy to an horrible rich boyfriend?”

“Well, you can always sing him ‘ _All I want for Christmas is you_ ’.”

“The fuck, V?!”

“What? You have two days to learn how to do it without destroying our ears with your yowls.”

Nero began to laugh with secondhand embarrassment for imagining the lame scene.

“Yeah, well, thanks for your ‘always top notch advices’ but I will keep thinking.”

He kept texting Dante for almost another minute until the guitarist commented their turn would be soon. He replied Dante’s usual ‘ _Laters ;)_ ’ with another similar message and was about to leave the mobile on the table when V talked.

“So cold, Nero. Kyrie would be so disappointed to know you do not send any heart emojis.”

Speaking of hearts, Nero’s one skipped a beat when hearing V’s innocent teasing comment. He gulped subtly, exhaling a short laugh before talking with his best joking tone.

“You know that spying others’ messages also counts as a violation of privacy, right?”

He had barely stood up from the sofa when V grabbed his wrist, making him stay in a light bended position. Nero looked at the poet with confusion and his heart beat faster when seeing this one’s inquisitive gaze. 

 _Shit_. He knew that look. It was the ‘I-know-something-is-going-on’ kind of look, and that glance was the worst V could threw at you because it meant you weren’t leaving until he was satisfied with your answer. However, Nero wasn’t someone who backed off even in a lost battle, so he tried very much to fight this lost one.

“Oi, don’t tell you want me to tuck you into bed because I have my limits as a babysitter, you know?”

“Is there something wrong between Dante and you?”

And there it was V in all his splendor: direct as an arrow and just as lethal, Nero thought when, this time, he couldn’t hide his caught-red-handed expression when hearing poet’s straightforward question. 

Exhaling a defeated sigh he recovered his seat, V’s fingers still around his wrist as if he was making sure Nero wasn’t going anywhere until confessing. Damn, for having ‘such a fragile body’ (the doctors’ words, not his) the man surely had a strong grip impossible to escape from.

“No, there’s not.”

And it was the truth. In a little more than a week he and Dante would be doing two months together, which was already a milestone for the guitarist, and everything kept being awesome between them. In fact, the time Nero spent at Dante’s apartment began to surpass the one he spent at his, especially during the nights, and not _just_ to make a good sexual use of the bed, or the sofa, or the shower, or even the kitchen table. Not that Nero complained when this happened, since by that time he had more than learned that Dante could do wonders against any vertical/horizontal surface, but it was also nice to simply come back from work to order some dinner (or laugh at Dante when this one tried to cook, failed and he had to take care of it), finishing the night watching something or simply talking before going to sleep.

He wasn’t going to lie: occasionally he found himself wanting to do other ‘normal’ things that were out of bounds for them, like going to the cinema, or for some drinks, or even giving a small walk around the city, but he had known from the start that such things would be impossible to do if he didn’t want to face tabloids again, and he was fine with it.

So, in summary, no: there wasn’t anything wrong with Dante and him.

“But something happened, am I correct?”

Nero gulped, scratching the back of his head with the hand V hadn’t kidnapped, because that he couldn't deny it.

“Yeah”, he talked without looking at V in an useless attempt that this one didn’t notice his embarrassment, though the red tips of his ears spoke from themselves, “he was about to say ‘I love you’.”

A brief pause fell after he quickly snapped those words. He was beginning to feel nervous for V’s silence so he looked at him again, finding the poet with an impatient expression.

“Nero, I do not need all the details but a little of context would be appreciated. For example, what were you doing when that happened?”

“A-And why the hell should that be important?”

“Alright, so you were having sex. That is something.”

“ _V_!”

“What, am I wrong?”

“...No, you aren’t.”

V nodded to himself and talked with his usual seriousness, finally releasing his wrist.

“And are you positive he was going to say it?”

“Well, he _began_ saying it but he changed the end at the last second”, he shrugged, “but I don’t know, maybe it’s just me reading too much into this and he didn’t plan to say it at all.”

After another short pause V looked at him with curiosity.

“And in the hypothetical case you were right, does it bother you that he was about to say it, or that he did not get to say it?”

Nero leaned his elbows on his knees, feeling his heart beating a little faster because one thing was to think about the answer and another to say it aloud. He did so without looking at V, missing the poet raising an impatient eyebrow.

“Alright, now what about trying to talk so that humans can understand it?”

“Argh, _fine_ : THE SECOND.”

“Better, though you didn’t need to shout that much.”

Nero was about to hit V with a cushion when hearing his reproaching tone, but he eventually didn’t: first, because the man was sick and it wasn’t in his nature to take advantage of that, and second, because _he_ was the one in acting hysterically when V was being pretty smooth about everything, so he made his best to push that stupid embarrassment away.

“The thing is that when he looked about to say it, I was totally shocked. I mean, we had been dating for a little more than a week when this happened so--”

“Alright, so this incident took place around the premiere?”

“...Man, you have to stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Being so fucking creepy.”

“Nero, even a kid could reach such a conclusion: there was not a lot of margin since the first day you slept together (ten days after the concert, if my memory does not fail me) until the day you came back from the premiere, and considering you have said ‘a little more than a week’ it is obvious it happened during the premiere, or exactly after it perhaps?”

“...All that only makes you look even creepier.”

“But am I correct?”

“ _Yes_ , as usual.”

“...Nero, have you just admitted that I am always right?”

“V, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!”

“My apologies, you finally accepting the truth struck me for a moment. Please, proceed.”

Exhaling a deep breath not to strangle his way too satisfied, convalescent friend who, despite his shitty state, miraculously managed to keep his usual level of sass, Nero continued talking while trying to put in order his thoughts, which weren’t precisely clear.

“The thing is that I wasn’t expecting him to say _that_ . And if Dante hadn’t said anything to begin with, I wouldn’t have minded. Hell, I wouldn’t have thought about it because normally people don’t say it so soon. But when he looked about to say it...shit, I really _wanted_ him to do it, you know? And when he didn’t…”, Nero sighed with frustration, “...man, it was kind of a let-down.”

Technically he hadn’t been aware of his own disappointment until later, since at the moment Dante’s amazing dick had been up his ass and his capacity of thinking when that happened was reduced to zero, but those were details that obviously he didn’t need to share with V. The relevant point was that since the guitarist’s almost slip of words, it didn’t matter that most part of the time Nero was having fun while working with the group, or enjoying what it surely was his best relationship so far with Dante: that ‘I love you’ that never came to be was like an itch that couldn’t be scratched. A not-too-bad itch with which Nero could live, but which was bothersome enough so that he woke up sometimes having weird dreams about Dante and him breaking up. 

And yeah, most part of those nightmares were so ridiculous that Nero even found them funny, but there also were the realistic ones that left him with that unpleasant feeling in his stomach and chest. The ones that in more than one occasion caused him to wake Dante up in the middle of the night with hungry kisses and suggestive grinds, which always tended to develop in a round (or two) of mind-blowing sex that never failed to convince Nero it had only been a bad dream, that they were still together, and that it was probably him the one giving excessively importance to it.

“Well, I think that the best way to clear up these doubts is pretty evident”, Nero looked at V when this one talked, interrupting his thoughts, “ask him directly about it.”

Nero snorted loudly.

“Yeah, sure, I will just go: ‘ _Hey Dante, remember that time you were about to say_ _«_ _I love you_ _» while we fucked_ _?_ ’”

“Well, I would have phrased it with more elegance but that is the idea”, Nero stared at V in disbelief, realizing that the poet wasn’t joking, “after all, being direct is always the best way to avoid misunderstandings. And if formulating that question doesn’t convince you, there is always the option of _you_ saying it instead.”

Nero turned red in a second, causing V to smirk with amusement.

“Because you love him, don’t you?”

He still felt his cheeks burning, but it didn’t take him even two seconds to nod brusquely, because even if he had never said it aloud, it was impossible to deny it at that point. In fact, he was pretty sure he had loved Dante practically since he joined the group and discovered the man was even better in person than what he had extracted from the things he had seen and read about him up till then, but as usual it had taken Nero a little to be aware of such a fact.

It wasn’t his fault though: his problem to understand his feelings towards Dante always went back to the fact that the man had been a constant most part of his life, and that Nero had been ‘liking’ him since he was a teenager. For that reason, even if for some people like V and Kyrie it had been extremely evident that Nero had had the hots for the guitarist for years, for Nero it had always felt as ‘pure deep admiration’, as dumb as it sounded to him now. And although he was more or less aware of the moment he began liking the man himself beyond the artist, he honestly didn’t know when he had crossed the line between ‘like’ and ‘love’, since he had never thought in those terms until then.

After all, Nero may not have the infinite list of love affairs Dante had, but his experience with serious relationships wasn’t _that_ extensive either. Actually, the person with whom he had lasted more (roughly 6 months) was Louis, and the only time in which he had been really close to pass from the simple ‘ _I like you_ ’ to the next level had been with the actor, but since by then it was evident that a distant relationship was going to be unavoidable, eventually he couldn’t bring himself to say it out of fear of complicating things.

So, in summary, Nero knew he loved Dante. But being aware of it _and_ doing something about it were really different things.

“Yeah, I do. But it’s not that easy. And I know it’s not like me to think so much...”

“You are right: it’s not.”

Nero half-heartedly glared at V, saying a sarcastic ‘ha ha’ before continuing talking more seriously. 

“...but it’s already a fucking luck that, and I quote, ‘ _the Most Casanova Guitarist_ ’ is in a serious relationship with me, so if I confess and eventually Dante wasn’t going to say anything, maybe I scare the shit out of him and I screw everything up.”

“Alright, so if you do not want to ask him about it _but_ do not want to tell him either, how do you plan to solve this situation?”

“...I never said there was something to solve.”

V blinked twice, his tone sounding threatening.

“So you are saying I have been listening to all this nonsense for nothing?”

“Nope, you helped me to vent, and I appreciate it, man”, he palmed V’s arm and was about to laugh when seeing the poet’s murderous glance, “hey, it was you the one who asked! I never said I planned to do anything about it.”

V exhaled an exasperated sigh, placing a hand against his own forehead with unnecessary dramatism.

“God, because of you the fever is coming back.”

“No shit, really?!”

“Of course not you idiot. Although I am really feeling a headache, so go grab the other pills.”

“Yes, your Highness.”

This time Nero avoided the hit coming from V’s knees while standing up, carefully passing over the gigantic panther. He was halfway to the kitchen when he stopped, exhaling a deep breath before looking back at V.

“But I’ll think about it”, V looked at him questioningly, “about telling him I mean.”

V hummed approvingly.

“Good. But bear in mind that if you don’t do it on New Year’s Eve at most, I will do it myself.”

Nero snorted.

“Nice bluff”, Nero’s smile disappeared when V simply ‘smiled innocently’ as an answer, “V, it’s a bluff, right?”

Before Nero could make sure that the poet was joking, the door of the apartment opened and Kyrie appeared practically buried in bags.

“Fuck, Kyrie”, Nero exclaimed, rapidly approaching the woman to help her with her shipload, “did you leave anything on the shop?”

The woman laughed a little laboredly, removing her fluffy coat while Nero left the bags on the living room table.

“It’s called winter sales, Nero”, the woman also extracted a smaller bag from her handbag, swinging it while looking at V, “and I also visited the pharmacy to buy stronger medicines in case the coughing goes to worse.”

“But what the--”, Nero looked at Kyrie in disbelief when peeking inside one of the bags, “Kyrie, what the hell is _all this_?”

Kyrie giggled nervously, depositing the medicines on the table before interlacing her hands and placing them under her chin.

“Weeell, as I said there were winter sales so I thought that a little of decoration would be nice to bright your apartment!”

“‘A little of decoration’”, Nero looked at V while showing V the about-to-break bag full of garlands and other Christmas ornaments, causing the poet to pinch the bridge of his nose with patience.

“Oh, come on, don’t be boring!”, Kyrie exclaimed with a pouting expression, “you both used to love putting the Christmas tree and stay awake until Santa appeared! Don’t you remember when we used to hide in the wardrobe to try to catch him?!”

“Yeah, Kyrie, but we were 8 at the time!”

“And I really do not want to bring the bad news, but maybe you should know Santa does not exist.”

“I know all that, you idiots, but I don’t care”, Kyrie placed her hands on her hips, talking with a determined tone, “it’s been too much since we were the three together again and this year I’m celebrating Christmas Eve properly. So, I plan to adorn the whole place with or without your help.”

When hearing the woman’s stubborn words, Nero and V interchanged a look. Probably it had been around 5 years since the last time Christmas Eve didn’t pass like any other night of the year. The main reason for it was that Credo passed away around that time, and during the first two years after Kyrie moved to Red Grave the Christmas season was hard for her and neither of them felt like celebrating it. Besides, Nero and V’s earnings weren’t precisely high at the moment, and the last thing they could afford to do was to waste money and electricity in useless adorns, so they used to have dinner together but without doing anything special about it. And then, when they finally had money to spend, a couple of years Nero was forced to leave in the middle of the night when a client called him to do a repair with a payment that was rather difficult to reject, and another one Kyrie had to go to an improvised rescue that lasted almost to the following day. 

So yes, definitely it had been a while since they had a proper Christmas Eve like the old times, so Nero thought it wouldn’t hurt to put a little of interest on it, and for the way V exhaled a long resigned sigh it seemed that the poet was thinking the same.

“Well, at least we will give that damn tree an use”, Nero commented while signaling at Griffon’s theoretical house that the bird kept ignoring, causing Kyrie to hug him effusively.

“It will be sooo fun, you’ll see”, Kyrie kissed his cheek briefly and began to empty the bags on the table, “so, what have you been doing while I was out?”

Nero looked at V with an imploring face, indicating like that he didn’t feel ready to share his previous conversation with Kyrie yet, knowing her usual ability to overreact with everything. V looked at him, then towards Kyrie, and finally smirked with satisfaction.

“Not much. Though Nero has finally admitted I am always right.”

Nero closed his eyes while Kyrie released the last thing she had grabbed, making it fall inside the bag once again while exclaiming a loud, incredulous ‘ _WHAT?_ ’. At least it was better than Kyrie _also_ trying to convince him to do something about his feelings for Dante, since a battle against her would be even harder to win.

* * *

After spending the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon decorating the whole house (Kyrie even insisted in putting a wreath over the toilet to make the most of a nail that had been there since forever), it finally occurred to Nero what he could give Dante for Christmas, for which it was necessary to stop by the guitarist’s house. He had to push away the sensation of feeling like an intruder while entering the place with the spare key Dante gave him, since the man had insisted him several times he could pass by whenever he wanted, and after taking what he came to look he stopped by a couple of shops to gather some other materials before coming back, in time to help Kyrie move Shadow from the sofa on which he had lied, almost crushing V with his excessive (heavy) affection.

Knowing that the next day would be rather intense, Nero went rather late to bed to have the present ready in time for when the others came back. He slept a total of 4 hours that night  but the next morning he obviously accompanied Kyrie to buy all the necessary for that night’s dinner. They ended buying way too much food but no matter how much he warned Kyrie about that, she stubbornly claimed she knew what she was doing, so he eventually gave up while taking an internal note of saying an ‘ _I told you_ ’ when being forced to eat the remainings of the dinner during the rest of the week. 

V felt a little better by the afternoon and had enough strength to walk around instead of simply going from bed to the sofa and vice-versa, so while the poet helped Kyrie do the dishes Nero took V’s place in the sofa to rest a little. The ‘quick nap’ ended being longer than expected and when he woke up it was already 7 p.m., V was sitting on the armchair next to the lamp writing some notes and Kyrie had begun to prepare dinner.

“Jeez, I told you to warn me”, Nero protested, kicking the blanket that someone had put over him to join the woman in the kitchen, not without first stealing the notes and pen V had in his hand, causing this one to look at him with irritation when Nero quickly disappeared to threw both things unceremoniously on V’s bed from the door’s frame.

“Sorry, you aren’t doing any work until being completely recovered”, Nero said cuttingly while putting the apron over his clothes, hearing the poet click his tongue with annoyance from the living room, in which an old CD of Christmas carols was being reproduced.

“‘ _Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way~_ ’”

Nero couldn’t help to smile with amusement when seeing Kyrie enthusiastically singing while cutting some bread to make toasts.

“Have you been singing all this time?”

“Yes, unfortunately she has.”

Nero laughed when hearing V’s resigned reply from the living room, and even more when Kyrie sang the following verses of the song even louder as an answer. He had spent around 10 minutes preparing sandwiches when his mobile began to sound from the living room with the ringtone he had assigned to Dante. He cleaned his hands on the apron and came back to the living room to pick up the call.

“ _Hey, kid_ ”, the smile on Nero’s face widened when hearing Dante’s cheery voice, “ _how you doing?_ ”

“Good, cooking for an army because of Kyrie’s horrible estimations”, he heard the guitarist laugh at the other side of the line, “what about you? You are doing something tonight?”

“ _Oh, yeah, we have something planned_ ”, Nero was about to ask for more details when Dante’s tone turned overly casual, “ _by the way, have you received a package?_ ”

Nero blinked, not expecting the change of topic.

“No, I haven’t.”

“ _...Could you check it again?_ ”

Nero rolled his eyes with a knowing a smile, beginning to walk towards the door while adopting a teasing tone. 

“Let me guess…”, he grabbed the doorknob, beginning to open the door, “...your Christmas present isn’t going to arrive in tim--”

“ **_MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!_ **”

Nero cursed loudly when the door had barely opened and several feminine voices shouted that at the top of their lungs, making him be about to release the mobile. Still in shock he finally looked at the several people standing at the door, his eyes opening impossibly wide when seeing the whole _Devil May Cry_ group there: Dante in the middle with his mobile still against his ear and a resigned expression on his face, while being surrounded by all the women of the group (included the former vocalists) who were half-bended in laughter, except Trish who was standing next to the guitarist patting his shoulder with an amused smile.

“Jeez, thank you for ruining the romantic surprise, ladies.”

“Oh, come on, it’s been funnier like this!”, Nico snapped while being the first in jumping on Nero to hug him with force, while Patty joined the hug to do the same while giggling happily.

“But I don’t get it”, Nero almost babbled, barely aware of Lucia rapidly entering and depositing a greeting kiss on his cheek while Lady ruffled his hair playfully, “weren’t you coming back tomorrow?”

“Yes, that was the idea”, Trish explained while Dante finally hanged up and removed his coat, ending in his leather trousers and casual black t-shirt, “but Kyrie messaged Nico saying that it would be nice if we could come back sooner and spend Christmas all together, and we decided we could allow ourselves to prescind from the last event.”

Nero’s mouth ended even more opened while turning around, seeing Kyrie smiling at him widely and at V recording everything with his mobile as usual. 

“See how my estimations weren’t _that_ horrible?”, Kyrie singsonged, hugging Nico when this one approached her. 

Nero exhaled an incredulous, happy laugh and was about to ask for more details about when the hell she and V had planned it when he heard a familiar masculine voice clearing his throat. He focused on Dante again and smirker with amusement when seeing the man with his arms crossed and a half-annoyed expression on his face.

“Well, now that you have greeted _everyone else_ , a welcome would be nice.”

When seeing Dante was actually a little bothered for being left the last Nero made sure to give the guitarist a proper greeting, enjoying the surprised expression that passed by Dante’s factions when he pressed him against the door, closing it again in the process, to kiss him slowly but with abandon, making several ‘ _Woo hoo_ ’s sound in the room to which neither of them paid any attention.

“Enough welcome for you?”, Nero playfully said against Dante’s lips after some seconds, the sensual mood managing not to break even after Nico shouted a ‘ _Get a room!_ ’ followed by V’s ‘ _But do not dare to use mine_ ’ that made everyone laugh again. 

“Yeah, not bad at all, kid”, Dante praised with a wide smirk, beginning to lean forward for another kiss when a couple of knocks interrupted them.

“That must be dad!”, Patty exclaimed from the floor where she was patting Shadow together with Lucia, making the giant cat purr happily while Griffon rubbed his head against Trish’s palm. 

“Ups”, Dante was the one in hurriedly opening the door, revealing Morrison and, to Nero’s surprise, also Vergil and Saya, “sorry. Did you have trouble parking?”

“The street was practically full, but we managed”, Morrison admitted while Saya nodded towards Nero and greeted him with a ‘ _Good evening_ ’ spelled with a rather recognizable Spanish accent.

“So, what’s the verdict, bro?”, Dante ironically asked, making Nero realize Vergil was looking around with a critical expression. The bassist helped Saya remove her coat before doing the same with his, staying in a pair of expensive denim trousers and a black, turtle neck jersey.

“It could be worse. Though it’s extremely small.”

“Well, we never expected to be 12 people here”, Nero replied ironically, causing Vergil to move his head a little as if he, for once, tolerated Nero’s argument. 

“Hehehe, yes, and about that there are only 5 chairs”, Kyrie said with an apologetic smile, talking immediately with her usual optimism, “but we will manage with the sofa, the armchair and the floor.”

“The floor?”, Vergil repeated with a tone that clearly indicated he hadn’t the least intention to sit on it. 

“Don’t worry, brother, we know you are too important to eat like a mere commoner.”

“Well, I’m glad you finally know where I stand, Dante.”

“It was _sarcasm,_ you idiot.”

“Guys, _behave_ …”

“I can eat on the floor as long as I’m next to the kitty~”

“I don’t mind eating there either as long as you let me take pictures.”

“Alright, but you cannot use them without asking us first.”

“Trish, hon, you are no fun…”

“Well, my apologies for using the ‘ _I am sick_ ’ card but I would prefer not to leave this armchair.”

“And my apologies too for using the ‘ _I’m old_ ’ card this time, but after the jet lag and the driving I would appreciate the sofa.”

“Weeell, since finally someone takes the sofa we will be picking it too, right babe?”

“Yes, but wait, I want to see bro’s room first!”

“Ooohh, good idea!”

“Wait, _what_?!”

“Come on come on, let’s see how the room of a devoted fan looks!”

“Nico, Lady, **_WAIT_ **!”

Nero had to actually run after the two women and Dante fortunately joined him in the (brief) persecution. They managed to catch the ladies in time, so Nero rapidly closed the door Nico had managed to open and put himself between it and her, attacking the vocalist by tickling her sides because he had discovered it was super effective. Meanwhile, Dante grabbed Lady bridal style and took get back to the living room while this one ‘struggled’ to get free, though she didn’t try too hard because she was busy laughing at her girlfriend losing the tickle battle against Nero.

“Lady, you knew how to cook, right?”, Nero heard Kyrie say as he and Nico joined the rest on the living room again, “would you lend me a hand?”

“Oh, sure!”

“I can help too if you need--”

“ _No!_ ”

Nero couldn’t help to feel a little of pity for Trish when the group let out that unanimous response, making the woman take a sit on the sofa next to Morrison with her arms crossed and an offended expression on her face.

“Don’t worry, Trish: I’m sure Dante is worse at cooking than you”, he said with a reassuring tone that made Trish show a small smile while Dante looked at him with half-closed eyes. 

“Next time I will let those crazy women go snooping in your room.”

Nero chuckled.

“Sorry, old man, you have to admit cooking is not among your multiple talents”, he kissed the guitarist conciliatorily, “but thanks for the help in stopping the crazy ladies.”

It seemed that the kiss and the mention of his qualities had been enough to satisfy Dante because the man smirked.

“No problem. Besides…”, he leaned forward to whisper the next sentence in his ear in a seductive tone, “...I want to be the first one in stepping in that room.”

He ended the sentence nipping softly his earlobe, causing him to suffer a shiver that fortunately was the only reaction he got because at that moment Kyrie and Lady required his presence in the kitchen and he promptly answered the call.

Eventually everyone managed to accomodate more or less comfortably in the living room, with Dante, Patty and Lucia sitting on the floor and the rest scattered on the chairs and the sofa. Nero discovered that Dante wasn’t exaggerating when commenting that Lady was an awesome cook, because the moment Nero joined them she immediately took the lead and efficiently organized their tasks to finish preparing dinner as soon as possible. As the rest of the house, the kitchen was pretty small but they managed to coordinate pretty well without hindering each other.

The dinner wasn’t _haute cuisine_ at all since it mainly consisted of variated canapés, sandwiches, and croquettes, but due to the speed the food vanished every time that a new plate was placed in the tables it seemed everyone looked pretty satisfied by it (even the picky bassist). Also, Lady had the idea of improvising some [ mini burgers ](http://images.ctfassets.net/lufu0clouua1/3aDjeQ3N3ayekgKs8uQoqY/808ed4cdf567e1d91c43b39b8f7c94ce/Smokey-Cheddar-Mini-Burgers-Sliders-Recipe.jpg) that everyone loved, and despite Kyrie’s initial worries the sponge cake she prepared as a dessert came out a little heavy but overall delicious. Finally, last but not least, V didn’t suffer any coughing attacks and the headache he had been suffering during the entire afternoon finally subsided, allowing him to be his usual ironic/sarcastic self.

Once everyone was full after the dessert, no one was surprised when an excessively happy Lady who had drank too much champagne proposed to play a card game similar to the one Nero ‘suffered’ when he had barely joined the group. The rest of the ladies, a little tipsy as well with the exception of Lucia and Saya who seemed to hold the alcohol pretty well, agreed as effusively, and Nero guessed that the only reason Vergil didn’t protest too much about the game was because his fiancée had agreed to it.

Lady was about to begin to explain the new rules when Nero excused himself for a moment to change into other clothes, since the ones he was wearing had ended a little stained despite the apron. He had changed and was in the process of washing his hands when he heard already familiar steps behind him, which caused him to turn with a playful smile to see Dante standing in the frame.

“Don’t tell me you’re looking for a bathroom hook up again”

Dante chuckled with amusement, leaning his hands on either side of the frame.

“You know I’d never reject such an offer, but before that, can you come for a second?”

Nero frowned with curiosity while finishing drying his hands and nodded, following Dante towards the small guest room that worked as Shadow’s playroom and where a small sofa had been placed, on which the others had left their coats and belongings. Nero observed Dante fumble with the pockets of his coat with curiosity, a smile slowly forming in his face when Dante finally extracted a small wrapped package from one of them.

“I didn't have time to buy anything for the others buut…”, Dante offered the present to Nero with a proud smile, “...I managed to buy something for you in time.”

Nero snorted softly to hide his light embarrassment, taking the present to begin open it. He felt Dante’s eyes on him the whole time, which made him be clumsier than usual while tearing off the wrapping paper. His frowning expression was replaced by one of stupor when the present was revealed: a small box of jewelry that he proceeded to open inside which there was a silver pendant with a small red jewel in the middle.

“I saw you staring at it a lot of times in Morrison’s cover shop”, Dante explained with a smile while Nero was still observing the pendant in awe, “because I doubt you were watching the old lady earrings next to it.”

Nero exhaled a still incredulos laugh, looking at Dante next with a little of alert.

“And how much exactly has this cost you?”

“Wow, kid, asking that is rude”, Dante chuckled when Nero half-closed his eyes after hearing the guitarist's fake offended tone, “don’t worry, the old man made me a discount so it was an acceptable price.”

For once, Nero decided not to press the matter of what Dante considered ‘an acceptable price’, because even if the guitarist wasn’t a spendaholic and his most expensive expenses tended to go to his bike and guitar, he had also seen Dante order not precisely asequible menus in restaurants with the only excuse of: ‘come on, kid, you have to try this!’. 

“So, you like it or not?”

Nero answered Dante’s rhetorical, confident question by kissing the man’s smirk. 

“No, I don’t, but the intention is what matters.”

Dante snorted softly when Nero’s teasing words contrasted with his grateful smile. The guitarist gestured so that he turned around to put him the pendant and Nero complied even if he could have done it himself. 

“It suits you.”

Nero agreed, admiring the present for some moment before looking at Dante with his heart beating a little faster.

“Okay, wait for a moment.”

Nero felt Dante’s curious gaze on him while he returned to his room to recover his present. While trying to find something to wrap it, he heard loud laughs coming from the living room and Vergil’s outraged voice, which made him deduce the bassist had been the victim of that round and that someone had asked him something he disliked, predictably Lady because her laughs were the loudest. After some seconds of useless search Nero gave up, deciding not to waste more time. He took the present and kept it hidden under his back so that Dante didn’t see it when he crossed the door.

“Okay, it’s not a very original present”, he admitted, causing Dante to look at him with even more curiosity, “and I would have liked to make a couple of more things by tomorrow but well...here.”

Nero accompanied the last word by showing Dante the present. It was the guitarist’s turn to open his eyes wide while reaching with his hand to grab the jewel Nero was sustaining with care.

“I have modified the chain a little”, Nero explained, talking with an unsure tone when seeing Dante unusually serious while observing half of the amulet his mother gave to him when he was a kid, the other half belonging to Vergil, “you said it was about to break so I replaced the weaker parts and I think it will last. Also, I managed to brighten the gem and the ornament around it.”

Nero scratched the back of his head, changing his weight from one foot to the other while feeling more and more nervous when Dante wasn’t saying anything yet.

“Sorry, maybe I should have asked you before taking it, but I promise I was super careful with it and--”

And like that, Dante’s mouth was suddenly against his, kissing the life out of him in a way that made him groan with need. He answered back with the same intensity, their tongues rolling together and teeth almost crashing due to the fierceness of the kiss. His hands passed to enclose around the guitarist’s mid back while Dante hooked his left hand in the back of his head while still grabbing the amulet tightly with the other. The guitarist only let his mouth go when air was lacking, forcing Nero to take a deep breath that was taken away again when seeing Dante’s extremely fond expression.

“Thank you, Nero.”

Dante whispering that sentence in an soft tone against his lips really contrasted with the almost violent kiss Nero had just received, and he felt his heart skip a beat when noticing that Dante’s eyes were in fact shining more than usual, showing the man was really touched for the present.

“You are welcome”, he muttered back, eyes transfixed on Dante’s ones while his heart passed to beat at hysterical rhythm, because he was sure that in case of existing a suitable moment to say _those words_ , it clearly had to be that one…

 

“Patty, _DON’T_ you dare to answer.”

“Oooh, come on, dad, it’s not such a big deal so don’t be a fuddy-duddy~”

“I’m _not_ such a thing but there are certain matters that as a father I _do not_ need to know.”

“Lucia, dear, you could have chosen another question.”

“Oh, come on, hon: I do not think it was such a bad one!”

“Well, according to the last statistics teenagers use to lose their virginity around 15, so I think it is safe to assume--”

“V, dude, don’t go there…”

“Wait a moment, if I have been forced to answer _that,_ then Patty is in the obligation to do the same.”

“Hehehehe, someone is embarrassed for having talked about his love proposal~”

“I’m _not_ embarrassed, but..Saya, do not laugh at their senselessnesses or it will be worse.” 

“Senss...sensee...oh my god, how can you spell that without stumbling?!”

“Because he is not as wasted as you, dear.”

“Hehehehe, I knew it would be awesome to spend Christmas together ♥!!”

 

...or maybe not.

“Aaaand there it goes the mood”, Nero couldn’t help to laugh when Dante commented that with certain resignation before kissing him playfully, “we better go before Vergil kills Lady."

"Or before Morrison suffers a heart attack.”

Dante laughed when hearing Nero's annotation.

"Yeah, that second one is more probable. Lady is way tougher than she already looks."

After Dante safely stored the fixed amulet inside the box where Nero’s pendant had been, they both returned to the living room while holding hands, the last action being so infrequent that Nero felt the tip his ears reddening. 

He decided to blame the alcohol in his system for such a teenager reaction even if he hadn’t drunk that much, while promising to himself that in case the guitarist didn’t dare to give the next step by the end of the year, he would do it instead. In fact, part of him was really tempted to screw the wait and telling Dante right there and then when...

 

“‘ _...like hell if I’m going to give you ALL the details about--ngh!...like hell if I’m going to give you ALL the details about--ngh!_ ’”

 

Nero stopped in his tracks for a moment, frozen, before going ahead of Dante in order to stomp on the living room after hearing his recorded voice sounding from an unidentified point.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”

It didn’t take much to find the culprit, a.k.a the poet still sitting on the armchair with an enervating grin on his face.

“Oh, it is just my ringtone. Could you please pass me the mobile? It should be somewhere around the kitchen.”

“‘ _...like hell if I’m going to give you ALL the details about--ngh!..._

“V I’M KILLING YOU!”

“Me? A poor sick man? That is not an attitude to have in Christmas, Nero.”

After turning the damn mobile off Nero had zero reluctance in jumping over his poor sick friend to begin hitting him with a cushion, and thankfully everyone, his stupid boyfriend included, was busy teasing him about how sexy he sounded while moaning to prevent that from happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sick or not, V keeps being the MVP xDDD


	20. It has to be hard

“Brother, what have you done this time?”

“Hey, why it has to be _my_ fault?!”

“Because the last time the group was summoned like this _you_ had clearly messed up.”

“Well, teeeechnically the last _last_ time it wasn’t Dante’s fault but Nero’s.”

“Wait, _what_?!”

“Sorry, but I can’t accuse Nico! It would go against the GG code.”

“Uhm, the what?”

“The ‘Good Girlfriends’ code, babe~.”

“Pffft, I’m sure you have made that up to blame bro for it.”

Nero exhaled a sigh while smiling with resignation when Lady stuck her tongue at him from her seat behind the keyboards, before beginning to play a melody with her right hand without even looking at the keys. The entire group except Trish was waiting for Morrison in the [recording studio](https://www.thejoint.org.uk/upload/images/sound/soundstage.jpg), he and Nico sitting on the small platform in front of the drums while the twins were in their respective high chairs, both with their arms crossed without realizing they were in the exact same posture.

The improvised meeting had surprised everyone because no one was expecting to be summoned on Saturday. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Morrison’s call, Dante and he would have probably slept until past midmorning, and by basing on the sleepy faces Lady and Nico had brought when entering the recording studio minutes after them, it seemed that the ladies’ plan of being sleeping until late had been also destroyed. The only one who looked fresh as a daisy when they stepped in the room was Vergil, but that didn’t count, since Nero had learned that, like V, the bassist entered the category of annoying people that could look good no matter the circumstances, which was honestly unfair.

Nero hid a yawn against his arms crossed over his flexed knees, while Nico leaned her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes in a useless attempt to sleep a little more. He hoped that the motive of the meeting wasn’t of the same nature of the last one. Theoretically it shouldn’t be. After all everything had been pretty calm during the week of Christmas and he had barely been out during it, spending more time at home or at Dante’s apartment, but he was beginning to learn that you could never know with the press.

“Hey, Dante, don’t you know where your ex is?”

When hearing Lady’s question Nero smiled to himself with amusement. Way, way before Dante and him got together Lady had always addressed Trish like that when the woman was absent in order to tease the guitarist, and she kept doing so when it was evident Nero didn’t feel bothered at all by it.

“No, Lady”, Dante answered in a conversational tone, more than used to it already, “I don’t know where your second-best-friend is.”

At that moment Vergil clicked his tongue, checking the hour in his expensive wristwatch.

“I really hope they arrive soon. I have other critical matters to attend.”

“Yeah, a.k.a Saya’s birthday, right?”, Dante raised his hands defensively when Vergil threw a deadly glare at him, “hey, what now? It’s not as if it was a secret--”

“Eeeeeh?! Today is her birthday?!”

“...Oh, _shit_.”

“ _Dante_...”

“C-Come on, how should I know that Lady didn’t know?!”

“And how old is she?! She was around Nero’s age, right? Will you guys do something special? I bet you will treat her to some fancy dinner in a horribly expensive restaurant. Oh, and what have you bought for her?!.”

“Dude, I suggest you begin to search for a new boyfriend.”

Nero internally agreed with Nico because for the first time since he entered the group, he was seeing viable that Vergil murdered Dante for real due to the vein almost popping out from the bassist’s temple, and certainly this time Dante would deserve it because he had been an even bigger big mouth than usual by letting out that secret to the official gossip of the group.

Fortunately, no one died that morning in the _Devil May Cry_ office, since not long after Lady began with the questions the door of the room opened and Trish stepped inside followed by Morrison. Nero frowned, since they looked rather serious, so he was surprised when Dante suddenly barked a laugh while crossing his arms again.

“Okay, spit the good news.”

To Nero’s surprise, Morrison chuckled while Trish hit the floor with her heeled boot in a frustrated gesture, ‘glaring’ at Dante while fighting back a smile.

“Alright, what did betray me this time?”

“Sorry, love: but a magician never reveals his tricks”, Dante playfully winked at her, causing Trish to sigh with resignation while Morrison cleared his throat.

“Well, I would have liked to announce this more theatrically, but due to Dante’s intuition I will be direct”, Morrison looked at everyone with a smile, “we have been informed beforehand about the nominees of the _Da Capo Orbs_ Award. We are in.”

Nero didn’t know how the drums managed to stay in place behind when Nico shouted while hugging him effusively, making him fall backwards in the platform while laughing. Barely managing to keep his balance while hugging the woman back, he saw Lady running towards the others while laughing enthusiastically (almost knocking the keyboards too in the process) to hug Trish and Dante. Vergil was meanwhile shaking Morrison’s hand in a way that was way too solemn in comparison to the way Dante had raised both ladies in the air at the same time during the hug.

“Oh my god, so glad those damn pictures didn’t affect the awards”, Nico said so that only Nero heard it, making him nod effusively while finally joining the others.

At that moment Dante had managed to break the serious handshake between Vergil and Morrison by exclaiming a cheery ‘ _Come here, bro!_ ’ while hugging the bassist, who clicked his tongue again with reluctance although eventually returned his brother’s gesture by patting Dante’s back. When seeing the vocalist standing, Lady immediately went towards Nico and jumped on her to kiss her, enclosing her legs around her waist. While avoiding a balancing Nico that struggled to keep sustaining her girlfriend while making out, Nero had time to accept Trish’s more moderate hug before his attention was completely stolen away by Dante, who apparently wanted to compete against the other passionate pair since the kiss he received was everything but innocent.

“I remind you this is just a nomination. We still have to win”, Morrison commented with serenity even if the wide smile of his face showed that he was also satisfied by the news.

“Yeah, old man, we know”, Dante commented after unlocking his lips from Nero’s, enclosing an arm around his waist in an already natural gesture, “but sadly we won’t be able to celebrate it like this when we win.”

“ _When_ you win?”, Nero repeated with a smirk, “aren’t you too confident? You don’t even know what you’ve been nominated for!”

“Don’t need to know: we are good enough to win whatever category we’re in. So come on, old man, don’t have us waiting.”

Dante’s super confident tone made the ladies laugh, the only one who looked as sure about their success, if not more, being the bassist.

“‘Best Rock Performance’ for the concert in October”, Morrison began to enumerate, “‘Best Rock Song’ for _Devil Trigger,_ and…”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when Morrison fixed his eyes on Nico, deducing what the man was going to say before he talked

“...‘Best New Artist’, for Nicoletta Goldstein.”

Even if Nero usually hated when V recorded videos without even asking for permission, this time he couldn’t help to do the same with Nico when seeing the vocalist’s jaw about to hit the floor, her brown eyes opened at her maximum while everyone approached the shocked singer to congratulate her.

“The official announcement will be made in a couple of hours”, Morrison continued explaining, “so we should prepare something to thank the fans. Also, as you know a special ceremony for the nominees will be held in Dumary in two days, on December 31, so please, I want everyone verifies to have suitable clothing for the occasion, since the trip is tomorrow and I really doubt we have time to go rent them like the last time. Any questions?”

“Yep, I have one”, Lady crossed her arms and looked at Trish with half-closed eyes, “why the blondie has enjoyed special treatment and already knew all this?!”

“I don’t know, brownie, maybe because ‘this blondie’ has helped arranging the payment of the trip and accommodation while all of you were still sleeping?”, Trish answered in the same pointed tone, making Lady exhale an embarrassed ‘ _Ups_ ’ while hooking her arms around the drums player.

“Three hoorays for the most responsible blondie!”, Lady exclaimed raising her free arm, making Trish roll her eyes with resignation with a small smile while the others automatically complied.

After Morrison gave them the details for the next day trip, Vergil excused himself to go attend his ‘private matters’ (a.k.a Saya’s birthday, as Lady repeated gaining herself a grumpy glare), while the others contacted Lucia so that the woman helped them record a video thanking the fans for their support and the voting. The group arranged a meeting with the photographer that same afternoon after agreeing on inviting her for lunch because, according to her, they had warned her with a very short notice and she had been forced to renounce to other commitments because of them. It clearly sounded as an excuse because the times in which _she_ warned them about sudden photoshoots with enough time were clearly losing against the ones which were improvised, but since Lady played the same card when that happened the group didn’t complain one bit and agreed to pay for the meal.

When the discussion diverted to where they would be having lunch that day, Nero left momentarily the recording studio mobile in hand, thinking in a way to tell Kyrie that he would be missing New Year’s Eve since he promised to spend it together with her and V as well.

He had just come up with a way to tell her without being killed for breaking his promise when a ‘new email’ notification popped up in his mobile. His eyes opened a little in surprise when seeing that Hank, the man with whom the group, and specially he, collaborated to prepare the last concert, had written him again answering to the same email Nero received almost two months ago, about some other job offers that could be interesting for him. This time the message was rather straightforward:

 

> ‘ _Good morning, Nero,_
> 
> _Please, when you have some time call me to this number: 555-0164._
> 
> _Best wishes,_
> 
> _Hank_ ’

 

Nero hesitated, not sure about doing the call or not, since it was rather predictable what Hank was going to talk him about. However, he felt kind of bad for having ignored the previous email, since he had planned to answer after the concert finished but then Kyrie was hospitalized, his relationship with Dante started and he completely forgot about the matter. Now he didn’t have that excuse, and besides Hank had been a great help and wasn’t even bothered for having been ignored, so Nero decided to do things right this time and marked the number.

After some tones the call was picked up and Nero heard the man’s familiar grumpy voice at the other side.

“ _Yes?_ ”

“Hank. It’s me, Nero.”

“ _Oh, Nero!_ ”, Hank’s voice gained affability when recognizing his voice, “ _wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon._ ”

Nero exhaled a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head even if Hank’s comment had been completely innocent and didn’t hold any irony or sarcasm in it.

“Yeah, sorry for not replying your previous email. I wanted to, but something came up and I totally forgot.”

Hank’s laugh at the other side let him know the man wasn’t bothered by it.

“ _Don’t worry, I can imagine you have been busy. I was told the concert was a success at the end, right?_ ”

Nero spent the next minutes talking about it, also mentioning the problems he had with the titling lights and the stuck suit. After some more chit-chat, Hank reconducted their conversation.

“ _So, did you get to check the information I passed you?_ ”

“Yeah, I did. They were pretty cool offers”, he admitted, because it would be silly to say otherwise, “specially the one of that filming studio.”

“ _Well, it’s good you think that, because they asked me again about you. They said they tried to contact you directly but they didn’t manage to get in touch.”_

Hank’s comment made Nero snort softly, guessing that they would have probably tried to use the number that was still wandering around the net from his ‘pre-DMC handyman’ days, as he internally called them.

“Yes, I had to change the number after some _Devil May Cry_ fans found it and the mobile died for too many incoming messages and calls.”

“ _Wow, didn’t know you were that popular._ ”

Nero couldn’t blame Hank’s surprised tone since he had been the first one in being shocked by the incident, and that hadn’t been the only change in his everyday life. Now, strange was the day in which he went out and wasn’t recognized, stopped, or addressed by a fan of the group. In fact, the first time that he was stopped in the street to be asked for a picture he thought the girl had mistaken him with someone else, learning then that ‘the Ninja of the group’, as people seemed to call him since Lady introduced him like that at the end of the last concert, had gained a lot of popularity, especially after he appeared in that press conference.

At first it was a rather weird feeling, to have people he knew shit about look at him or approach him as if they knew him, but by then he was already used to it, and sometimes he dared to take the initiative when seeing someone looking at him too intensely, answering with a casual: ‘ _Yes, I’m him_ ’ that always worked...Or well, _almost_ always, since one time he answered like that to a lady who had been staring at him for like 5 minutes while he and V were at the supermarket, discovering too late that the woman had no clue about who he was and was simply looking at a spot on his face.

He didn’t remember the last time he had blushed so hard from embarrassment, neither the last time V had laughed at him so much to end almost crying.

“ _So, you say the offer in the Art Department looks promising._ ”

Nero was woken up from his thoughts when hearing Hank, managing to interrupt the man in time.

 _“_ Yes, but I’m not interested.”

He realized he had probably been too cutting when Hank sounded a little taken aback when talking next.

“ _Are you sure? I mean, I know I’m probably biased since I’m working there, but I really think it’s a great opportunity._ ”

“And I don’t doubt it”, Nero admitted, since he had read what the company was looking for and there were some interesting free spots for which he would have applied if the circumstances were different, “but I’m already working with the group, and unless I’m fired I don’t think I’m leaving it any time soon.”

“ _I know, son_. _When we met it_ _was evident you love working with them, but if it’s not an indiscretion, your contract with them is exclusive?_ ”

Nero blinked a couple of times. He was embarrassed to admit that at the time he had been so willing to work with the group that probably he hadn’t read the contract as carefully as he should, so he hadn’t the least idea about what Hank had asked. He had simply assumed that working with the group automatically forbid him from doing it elsewhere, so it hadn’t crossed his mind that he could still offer his services to other companies as long as he respected the confidentiality agreement that he had signed.

 _“I ask because if it’s not, we could probably arrange it so that you applied for this offer while still keeping your contract with Devil May Cry intact._ ”

Nero sighed, hooking his free hand inside his pocket while changing his weight from one foot to the other. He wasn’t going to lie: the position that the filming studio was offering in the Art Department looked really interesting, since one of the most famous fantasy series of the moment was being recorded there and the company was looking for people that worked in the scenarios but also in the costumes, so in case of applying and being chosen, he could also apply the gathered knowledge for the group as well.

“I don’t know”, he eventually said, “I would need to ask Morrison about it.”

Hank’s tone sounded hoping next.

“ _But then that means that, in case of being possible, you would like to pass an interview?_ ”

Nero bit his bottom lip, initially hesitating because a stupid childish voice inside of him was telling him that maybe he was betraying the group by trying to apply for other things, but almost immediately he discarded the idea. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was going to leave the group. Hell, he had his priorities clear and he would choose the band over everything else, but he was also curious about trying other things, and he doubted such a thing was bad.

“Maybe”, when hearing Hank say a satisfied ‘ _Yes_ ’ at the other side he rapidly talked, “but I can’t make any promises. As I’ve said I still have to talk to the group about it, and the DCO Awards nominees ceremony is in two days, so I don’t think I can give you an answer after it.”

“ _No pressure, son”,_ Nero relaxed again when hearing Hank’s calm voice, _“the offer stands until the second week of January so you have plenty time to think about it. And also, the ‘Da Capo Orbs’ you say? I didn’t know that the nominees had been announced already.”_

Nero got incredibly pale. _Crap_.

“Y-Yeah, no, you right, they haven’t been announced”, he cleared his throat, insulting himself for his horrible capacity of improvisation, “I just meant that _in case_ they win we will have to go there, a-and therefore _in that case_ they’ll be too busy so...”

“ _Of course, of course, you have to be ready for everything_ ”, Hank’s excessive compressive tone told Nero that the man was just pretending not having realized about the slip, “ _well then, will be waiting for your call._ ”

Nero smiled relieved, knowing that Hank would keep the secret of his stupidity.

“Thank you, Hank. Bye.”

He hanged up, exhaled a long sigh, and was about to come back to the recording studio when remembering he hadn’t written Kyrie yet. He was in the process of doing so when Dante exited from the recording studio.

“Hey kid, there is draw between Italian and Mexican”, Dante looked pointedly at him, “your choice?”

Nero smirked, still finishing typing the message.

“I guess you will break up with me if I choose the second, right?”

Dante chuckled, enclosing an arm around his neck

“Nah, but I will be terribly disappointed”, the guitarist smiled with amusement, “you still writing Kyrie? Damn, she is a stubborn lady to convince.”

Nero gulped, his eyes still focused on the screen, since it was evident that the guitarist was unaware of the call he had just received.

He hesitated, not knowing if bringing up the topic or not, but eventually decided to let it pass for now since he wasn’t even sure yet about wanting to accept the offer or not.

“Yep, like all the ladies”, he eventually said, pressing ‘send’ and storing the mobile back inside his pocket, “so, Mexican then?”

He exhaled a laugh when seeing Dante’s disappointed face.

“It’s a joke. I’m starving for some good pasta.”

Dante’s face brightened.

“I knew I was with you for a reason.”

While Dante stole a hard kiss from him, Nero’s heart skipped a beat, innerly hoping that it was the same reason he still hadn’t been brave enough to tell.

* * *

“Ho - ly - _cow_.”

Nero thought the same thing than Nico when the van stopped in front of the [impressive hotel](https://reisetopia.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Bellagio-Las-Vegas.jpg) where they would be staying in Dumary. For once, their destination had been relatively close, only an hour and half in Ferry from Red Grave, so that afternoon they had boarded it with the van in order to transport the instruments more easily. The trip was rather calm, with the only incident of Nico discovering she suffered from seasickness which made the poor woman spend most part of the time leaning over the railing, but when they finally reached ground she recovered almost immediately and now she was perfectly fine while freaking out with Nero.

While Morrison went to park the vehicle and also leave instructions to carry their instruments to the room where the ceremony would take place the following night, Trish and Vergil led the way inside the impressive building to do the check-in. When entering, Nero and Nico exclaimed respective curses when seeing the [interior](https://images.trvl-media.com/hotels/1000000/150000/140600/140596/c8a0501d_z.jpg) of the hotel was excessively flashy.

“Come on, kid, you’ve been almost three months with us. You should be used already to the luxury”, Dante commented with amusement when seeing his dumbfounded expression, the comment making him snort.

“Oh yes, because it’s super normal having a golden statue of a horse in a hotel”, he retorted, focusing on Nico when the woman grabbed his arm to shake it with a little of hysteria. He followed the place she was signaling, his mouth snapping open as well when seeing that a really famous metal group had just arrived.

“Oh my god, I used to be super fan of them, and also have a super crush on the singer too.”

At any other moment Nero had teased Nico for having a type, but he was being busy frowning when the mentioned singer, a woman in his mid-thirties wearing gothic clothes and a hairstyle really similar to Lady, greeted Dante from afar with her chin, smiling knowingly. Nero looked at Dante then, and when seeing the man returning the gesture while winking, he couldn’t suppress a snort.

“Let me guess: you slept with her.”

He said that at the exact moment in which Lady joined them, his comment making the woman exhale a laugh.

“I think you’ll finish sooner saying with whom Dante _didn’t_ sleep”, the keyboards said while patting playfully the guitarist’s arm, causing this one to shrug nonchalantly while crossing his arms.

“What can I say? I was young and impulsive.”

Nero looked at Dante with a deadpan expression, but before he could argue against that lie he saw someone familiar entering the place that made Nero frown even more as Lady exhaled a loud ‘ _Yuck_ ’.

“We should have known she was going to be here too”, she said while Nero kept glaring at Nevan. The woman was wearing a tight, provocative violet dress with a fluffy black shawl around her pale shoulders, her dark beauty attracting the views of practically all the people around. After ordering a couple of hotel employees to grab her gigantic two suitcases, the woman noticed the presence of the group, and far from feeling intimidated by their animosity, she had the nerve to smile seductively and blow a kiss towards them before walking voluptuously towards one of the elevators.

“Alright, check-in done”, Nero heard Trish say behind them, “Lady and Nico, you are with me in room 405. Dante, Vergil and Nero, you will be staying in 412…”

The woman stopped talking and blinked confused when seeing the aura coming from Lady and him.

“Guys? What’s wrong?”

“Your favorite person ever, love”, Dante answered with resignation, causing Trish to half-close her eyes.

“I guess it was much to ask that the harpy stayed in her den. Well, let’s hope she is not sitting close to us in the ceremony. I wouldn’t like to be disqualified for killing someone. Also...”, talking in the same conversational tone Trish extracted a set of square shaped flyer from an envelope, “...all the ceremony guests have been invited to a private party tonight in the hotel discotheque. I would personally prefer to rest since tomorrow is the ceremony--”

Everyone, Nero included, reached for the flyer while beginning to read the conditions with enthusiasm, interrupting Trish’s comment.

“--but I guess I’m alone in this”, the woman finished with a resigned smile.

“Wait, _all_ the drinks are free?”, Dante whistled and smiled while nodding, “oh yeah, these people know how to do a good party.”

“And DJ Argosax is playing tonight?!”, Nico exclaimed, “I heard that he is really, _really_ good!”

“Yeah, don’t tell Lu I said this but Arius definitely knows how to attract public to Dumary.”

“Arius?”, Nero inquired, making Lady nod and made a circular movement with his index finger.

“Yep, he is the owner of the place. Lu worked for him before joining _Devil May Cry_ and had some differences in opinion of how he handled things, specially his treat to his employees. Personally I think he is an asshole too, but after having a little chat with Dante the man went through a 'change of heart' and since then there haven’t been more incidents with unhappy employees.”

Nero was pretty sure his imperturbable expression couldn’t betray his thoughts, but he must have been mistaken because all the ladies were forced to muffle a laugh while Dante kept looking at the flyer.

“W-What?”

“Oh, nothing”, Lady winked at him knowingly, “we’ll keep the secret that you are turned on by bad boys.”

Nero glared at the woman when her comment made Nico and Lady laugh again, finally getting Dante’s attention.

“Did I miss something?”

This time Nero couldn’t help to join the ladies laughs when seeing his badass, clueless as fuck boyfriend look at everyone with a rather funny confused face.

* * *

“Kid, aren’t you ready yet? Not wanting to rush you, but I would like to take a pee before leaving.”

Nero rolled his eyes, looking at himself in the mirror of the impressive hotel bathroom while deciding if he should keep one or two buttons loose of the [red shirt](https://stylesatlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Trendy-Red-Shirt.jpg) he had gone to buy with V the other day. Eventually he decided to leave two out. After all, that way the pendant Dante gave him for Christmas could be better displayed, and of course that was the only reason for it.

After unnecessarily pushing his short hair back, he took a last look and with all the casualness he was able to gather he exited the bathroom.

“All yours.”

Dante, who was lying on one of the [two beds](https://images.trvl-media.com/hotels/1000000/150000/140600/140596/9f49e020_z.jpg) of the room with his hands behind his head while humming distractedly, stood up. The guitarist hadn’t put his shoes on yet but was already dressed with an informal pair of jeans and a [black and grey shirt](https://5.imimg.com/data5/ML/PW/MY-37950609/mens-black-casual-shirt-500x500.jpg) that, oh miracle, was a little different from the simply black, V-neck ones that filled Dante’s wardrobe, since according to the guitarist: ‘ _If I like it and it’s stylish, why change it_?’.

“Jeez, you took your sweet time inside there--”

Nero felt a wave of satisfaction when Dante stopped in his tracks, jaw hanging slightly slack as his eyes scanned him from head to toe, stopping at his displayed skin before meeting his smirking face.

“Fuck, kid”, Dante exhaled a light, frustrated laugh and approached Nero to settle his hands on his hips, eyes shining with want, “how I’m supposed to keep my hands to myself when you look like _this_?”

Even if Nero was expecting the hard kiss that followed Dante’s words, he still groaned during it, sensually grinding against the guitarist and making this one break the kiss with a curse.

“Do that again and we are skipping the party.”

Goddamn, hearing that snarled threat made Nero incredibly tempted to check if Dante was really serious, but they could do that later. Right now, he had to admit he was looking forward to some party hard with the group.

“You sure, old man? Remember that you will be missing having all your drinks for free.”

Dante snorted softly, separating from Nero with certain reluctance.

“You always know the correct words to seduce me”, he joked, playfully groping Nero’s ass before entering the bathroom, causing him to roll his eyes with a smile.

In five minutes, they had locked the room and were walking down the corridor. Officially, Vergil was also sharing the room with them but the bassist was obviously staying with Saya, who was also in the same hotel, and since the man was a free spirit Nero guessed that if they met him at the disco it would be purely by chance.

“Come on, gals, we are already late”, Dante called while knocking at the door, gaining a unanimous ‘ _we’re going_ ’ that became another ten minutes of him and Dante playing thumb wars while leaning against the opposite wall.

Dante was asking for his third revenge while complaining about Nero being too skilled with his fingers (which made Nero have to bite back a comment not wanting to initiate a teasing battle with predictable, sexy result), when the door opened and the three ladies exited from it.

“Sorry for the wait”, [Lady](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1X3SJQpXXXXcJXFXXq6xXFXXXu/Kendall-Jenner-21st-Birthday-Dress-Oro-Argento-Metallo-sexy-delle-Donne-del-Vestito-Da-Sera-Vestiti.jpg) said cheerily while Nero noticed with a smile that [Nico](http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/emrgst-l-610x610--dress-tops-sexy+tops-club+tops-chic-wots+hot+right-sequins-glitter+glistening-shoulder-clubwear-party+dress-summer.jpg) had been wise enough not to pick heels this time, “come on! Let’s party hard~!”

“Lady, please, remember you’ve promised me you will behave...and there she goes”, [Trish](https://data.whicdn.com/images/30527148/original.jpg) sighed when the keyboards player ignored her completely to go to the elevator, from which she began gesturing rapidly so that everyone joined her, “Nico, please, make sure she doesn’t drink too much.”

“Will do my best”, the vocalist said with an extremely cheery tone that didn’t inspire too much confidence.

They all rode down the elevator towards the basement, since there was the place where the private disco was. There was a lot of people there already, all famous from the music or show business, and Nero was surprised when seeing the doormen frisk all the guests so that they leave all their personal belongings in the adjacent private [lockers](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2015/11/1Rebel_London_Studio-C102_Gareth-Gardner_dezeen_1568_14.jpg), while paying careful attention that all mobiles and cameras were left behind.

“They want to make sure that whatever happens in the party stays in the party”, Dante explained when seeing his confused face, “it’s a common protocol in this kind of events.”

Nero hummed to himself, and again his expression must have been like an opened book because Dante continued.

“Although people can still talk, and in this world rumors are as shitty as news even when there aren’t any substantial proofs.”

Dante didn’t need to add anything else so that Nero understood, and even if he had already assumed that he would still need to keep his distance with the guitarist, he couldn’t help to feel a little disappointed, since he had been unable not to let his hopes up when learning about the impossibility of people taking compromising pictures about them inside.

When everyone was checked, they spent easily 10 minutes trying to fit all their things in a single locker, after Lady and Dante defended it could be done and Trish insisted it couldn’t. Needless to say, the stubborn team managed to win (though barely) and by when they entered the [discotheque](https://www.discotech.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/hakkasan_header_new-1030x433.jpg) Nero’s mood had improved again, also thanks to Nico who the moment they entered kidnapped him to drag him in into the dancefloor.

Subtly but firmly, Trish and Lady made sure to create a small space around them to be able to dance comfortably. Or better said: all the comfortably they could, considering that the place was rather crowded even if the tables scattered around were all occupied.

After a couple of songs played, Nero began to understand why cameras were forbidden in that place after he recognized certain famous people (some of them even married) getting too intimate with others with whom theoretically didn’t share any kind of relation.

“Oh god”, Nero heard Nico say as the woman stared without any discretion at a rap singer who was heatedly making out with the guitarist of his theoretical rival group in one of the tables, “I _knew_ I wasn’t imagining the sexual tension of those two.”

“Hehehe, you don’t know how many yummy gossiping you can obtain in these parties”, Lady raised her arms defensively when Trish threw him a look, “buuut I’ll keep them to myself, because telling all of you, Patty and Lu doesn’t count.”

“That’s a bunch of people, Lady”, Nero exclaimed with a laugh causing the woman to make a dismissive gesture with her hand before emptying her champagne, handling the empty glass to Dante, “can you bring me another please~?”

“Lady...”

“Please, it’s just my second one!”

“Yes, in 15 minutes”, Trish sighed when seeing Lady’s puppy’s face, “do whatever you want, but if you end sick don’t expect me to take care of you.”

Trish’s threat was an empty one and everyone knew it, Lady included who playfully kissed her friend’s cheek.

“Kid, you coming?”, Dante suddenly said signaling towards the counter after all the ladies made their drink choices, “I don’t want to be the only one enslaved around.”

Nero took pity of the enslaved guitarist and nodded with a smile, following Dante through the crowd as the mentioned women thanked them with innocent smiles while keeping dancing on their own. It took them their good minutes to be able to reach the bar counter, but fortunately not as much to be attended.

“Damn, I’m getting old for this”, Dante said with a huff, efficiently ordering their drinks while Nero chuckled.

“Oh yeah, I see how much you are suffering”, he said with irony, pointing with his eyes at the way Dante was automatically swinging his body to the music and causing this one to snort.

“Come on, it’s not my fault to have born with rhythm in my veins.”

At that moment the bartender left their two beers on the counter in front of them before coming back to prepare the ladies cocktails, so they both reached for them to chime.

“What is the toast for?”, Dante inquired.

“For a good New Year’s Eve.”

The guitarist looked at him with a teasing smile.

“You sound as if you had something special planned for it.”

Nero felt his heart skip a beat, irrationally fearing for a moment that Dante had deduced he planned to confess his feelings then. However, when seeing the glint in Dante’s eyes, he deduced that whatever the guitarist was thinking probably entered the sex department. Not that Dante was entirely wrong, since he was pretty sure that that’s how the following night would end.

“Maybe”, he said cryptically, taking a sip of his drink, “but you will have to wait to discover it.”

Dante hummed, leaning the hand who wasn’t sustaining the beer on the counter while taking a sip on his own, his eyes never leaving Nero.

“Guess I’ll have to be patient.”

It was at these moments in which Nero really regretted not having the freedom of simply following his instincts, which now were urging him to keep teasing Dante until making the man snap and kiss him.

Fortunately, the clunk of the cocktails being left in front of them broke the tension that was beginning to form between them, making Dante clear lightly his throat while emptying his beer, taking two of the three drinks.

“Well, time to go back.”

 _Sadly_ , Nero couldn’t help to think by passing while taking the remaining drink in his free hand, following Dante to come back with the ladies who were giving their all in the dancefloor.

During the next two hours they visited the bar counter several times, and eventually Nero entered that state of mind in which he began to feel less inhibited than usual, though still conserving his almost full capacity of reasoning. The others were in a similar state, Trish included despite her initial reluctance to assist the party, which showed when the drums player, together with Nico and Lady, cornered Nero to twerk at the rhythm of the song playing at the moment, which made him be extremely glad to be gay or otherwise he would have had a little problem down there for the sexy movements of the women.

At some point of the night Nico and Lady seemed to mutually decide that they didn’t give a crap about their relationship being exposed, since they began to kiss in the middle of a song that they had been dancing together. Nero couldn’t help to feel a pang of jealousy, thinking that it would be really nice to be able to do that with Dante as well. However, that thought was washed away when the music changed into a more calmed, sensual song and Dante began to [swing his hips](https://youtu.be/b41RaH7hVNU?t=6) in a way that, Nero thought, should be considered fucking illegal.

He found himself licking his sudden dry lips, feeling the uncontrollable urge of pushing Dante against the nearest empty sofa and crawl as his lap so that Dante kept doing that movement but up and down, up and down, so that he was able to feel how hard he could make the guitarist for him…

...and now he had a boner. _Great_.

“Gotta go”, Nero suddenly blurted out to the first person next to him who wasn’t Dante, who resulted to be Trish, “toilet.”

The woman nodded and Nero, not daring to look at Dante who was busy dancing too sexily for his own good, hurriedly abandoned the group towards the restroom situated on the second floor.

As usual, even if the line in the women’s was scarily long, he could directly enter the men restroom without waiting, approaching one of the sinks to splash some cold water in his face.

He did it several times, then remaining with both of his hands on the sink and his body slightly bended forward, eyes closed while taking deep, calming breaths after he felt his erection gradually disappear.

Okay, he had to get a fucking hold on himself, because even a horny, hormonal teenager would know how to behave better than what he was doing in the dancefloor, having those dirty thoughts and getting hard just for it. Besides, he was being an idiot: after the party he would have all the time he’d like to test the resistance of their hotel room bed, so there was zero reason for feeling frustrated by having to wait a little for that to happen.

Feeling more composed, Nero took a last deep breath and after washing his face one last time, he adjusted his shirt and exited the bathroom. He was about to climb down the stairs leading to the dance floor again when he was suddenly intercepted by a woman that he initially didn’t recognize.

“Nice to see you again~.”

Nero automatically tensed when hearing that sensual voice, finally recognizing the singer and leader of _Temen-ni-gru_.

“Sorry, but I can’t say the same”, he simply snapped, trying to pass by the woman’s side, but she was faster intercepting him again with fluency, as if she was a snake sliding in the floor.

“Come on, boy, don’t be mean~”, she offered him a seductive smile, “wouldn’t you like to join me for a drink?”

Nero snorted, his impulsive nature making him face the woman instead of simply ignoring her.

“And to risk that you spread some bullshit like me taking advantage of you? No, thanks.”

The woman laughed at that, suddenly pinching Nero’s cheek before he had time to push her hand away.

“My sweet boy, believe that in case of using such a dirty method, thing that I would never do, I would search for a more plausible rumor”, knowing that the woman had somehow insulted him but unable to fully understand how, Nero was about to leave for real when Nevan continued talking, “and speaking of those, I’ve heard that some people are really willing to hire your services.”

Nero’s mouth snapped opened without him being able to prevent it.

“How do you--?”

He knew he had talked too much when Nevan’s smirk managed to widen even more.

“So it is true then”, the woman chuckled deeply, “in that case, considering that you are getting bored of working with the group--”

“I’m _not_ \--”

“--may I suppose I could give you an offer myself?”

Nero’s eyes opened wide at that.

“Is that a joke, right?”

Nevan’s smile kept in place but under the spotlights occasionally illuminating the room Nero saw her eyes were serious.

“It is not. It is evident that your presence in the group has greatly benefited them. In fact, I’m sure that their nomination for the ‘Best Rock Performance’ wouldn’t have been possible without your involvement, so…”, Nevan made the most of his astonishment to place her hand on his shoulder in order to purr the next sentence in his ear “...if you decide to also collaborate with us, I’m willing to give you anything you decide to ask for.”

At that, Nero finally snapped out of his surprise to remove the woman’s hand from his shoulder brusquely.

“Sorry, but I already have what I want, so like hell if I’m leaving Dante’s side to join you.”

Nero didn’t get what was wrong with his sentence until, after an initial stupor, Nevan’s grin almost split her face in two.

“So Dante’s side?”

Nero’s heart literally stopped.

“The group’s side.”

But the harm was done.

“Well, well”, Nevan crossed an arm across her body, while leaning her chin on the other, “I would have never guessed that the passionate guitarist swings that way now.”

Nero gritted his teeth, angry at the woman but specially at himself for having had such a fucking giant slip. However, there was no reason to panic: Nevan could reach her conclusions and say whatever the hell he wanted, but it would be her word against them if she decided to spread unfounded rumors. It was the whole group against her, and if they had won once, they could do it again.

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

Finally, he did what he should have done the moment that conversation started and left, leaving the woman behind with that frustrating satisfied smirk.

“It has to be hard, hasn’t it?”, even if he didn’t turn around, Nero made the mistake, again, of stopping when the woman said that, curious against his will, “to be with someone who is _so_ popular and who raises so many passions whenever he goes, without being able to do anything to claim him for yourself. Poor boy: I cannot fathom how frustrating it has to be~.”

Nero grit his teeth, wanting to say that he didn’t need to claim anyone because Dante could have a fucking hundredth of people wanting to sleep with him: he knew that Dante was just interested in him. However, answering would be the same that falling into that woman’s game, so Nero simply took a deep breath and continued talking, forcing himself to ignore the woman’s evil laugh behind him.

He came back to the dancefloor as fast as possible, bumping with more people he would have liked in his urge to go back with the rest and forget about that horrible bitch, and when he finally reached the spot where the others were some moments ago, three things caught his attention.

First, that oh surprise, Lady and Nico were nowhere to be found.

Second, that [Vergil](https://img1.cfcdn.club/cd/14/cd07d443134f2d1abdd09da7d4d25b14_350x350.jpg) and Saya had apparently decided to honor them with their company, and that Trish and Saya were clearly laughing at the bassist’s reluctance to dance, since the man looked rather awkward while the ladies tried to convince him to do it.

And third, that Dante was a little far away from the group, talking with the same woman that had greeted him in the hotel entrance that morning.

Nero found his hands turning into fists, a wave of possessiveness assaulting him when seeing the woman settle an arm around Dante’s neck to whisper the next sentence in his ear, saying something that caused him to laugh.

He insulted himself, feeling stupid for acting jealous when they were only talking.

Or at least, that was the only thing they were doing when Dante suddenly made an attempt to say goodbye with one of his characteristics winks and suddenly the woman grabbed the front of his shirt and forced his head down to kiss him passionately.

Nero gritted his teeth so hard it hurt, feeling his blood boil.

Because he knew that Dante hadn’t initiated anything, but the fact that Dante had preferred to wait that the current, _open-mouthed_ kiss finished instead of fucking pushing her aside since the first second made anger invade him.

Fuck.

He _really_ hated to agree with Nevan, but he couldn’t deny it anymore.

 

It was fucking hard.

 

“Nero?”, the named one almost jumped when Trish suddenly grabbed his shoulder, since he hadn’t realized the woman had approached and was looking at him with slight concern, “dear, are you okay?”

Nero gulped. He was about to lie but he realized it was stupid pretend to be okay at that moment.

“I think I’m going back to my room. I’m not feeling so good.”

Before Trish could add anything else he began to walk towards the stairs again, since it was the fastest way to reach the exit, now the music sounding too damn loud in his ears even if some minutes ago it had been okay, not to mention the tighten he felt constraining both his chest and stomach.

“Hey, kid!”

It was the first time that hearing that familiar voice made him clench his jaw with anger.

Not trusting in his capacity of control right now he hooked his hands in his pockets and kept walking, pretending not having heard Dante at all, but he should have known that the guitarist was hard to beat in the stubborn department.

In no time Dante had managed to reach him even if he was walking the fastest he could without running. When the guitarist grabbed his arm in an attempt to make him stop, he actually did it, but the glare he threw at Dante’s hand resting in his arm made its owner immediately release him.

“Nero”, Dante’s tone sounded a little breathless, indicating that the man had some trouble in keeping his rhythm, but Nero barely paid attention to it, simply staring at Dante’s lips with his whole body in tension, “what’s wrong? Trish told me that you weren’t looking good.”

Nero stared at Dante in disbelief.

“Are you fucking serious right now?”, a snort escaped him, “I’ll give you a hint: it maybe has something to do with the lipstick you are wearing now.”

When hearing him Dante rapidly passed his thumb through his lips, as if he didn’t realize they were stained. He cleaned them using the back of his hand, talking next with a conciliatory tone that made Nero angrier.

“Look, Nero, I didn’t know she was going to kiss me. I didn’t see it coming--”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure you didn’t: but it still took your fucking sweet time to let her go, huh?”

When hearing his sarcastic reply Dante exhaled a long sigh before talking with a guilty, light frustrated tone that took Nero by surprise, since he had never heard Dante use it.

“I know, kid, but I couldn’t just push her away”, Dante exhaled an humorless laugh then, “and I guess it’s not something to be particular proud about, but I’m not--I _wasn’t_ the kind of man who would say no when a beautiful woman hinted she wanted to have some fun. And damn, she was already shocked when I made up an excuse and left, so suddenly rejecting the kiss could have put us eventually in the spotlight.”

Nero gulped, his anger completely vanishing when finally realizing that he wasn’t the only one in having more and more difficulties in dealing with that hidden relationship, because Dante had clearly sounded as if it was beginning to be hard for him as well.

 

“Let’s announce it.”

 

Until seeing the way Dante’s eyes opened wide, Nero didn’t realize he had been the one in spelling those words.

“What?”

Nero suddenly felt his throat dry.

He still had time to take back those words, to take his time in thinking about the implications of what he had just blurted out.

But then he thought about what had just happened, about Dante having to keep his facade of Casanova because otherwise people could begin to suspect he wasn’t single anymore, and for what? Just because _he_ was afraid of losing a little of privacy? Hell, there were already people who knew him and who stopped him in the street, so now he knew _that_ was a price he was ready to pay if it meant they could stop behaving as if they were doing something wrong.

“Let’s announce it. That we are together I mean”, Nero’s heart was pounding like crazy now but he kept talking, his eyes fixed on Dante’s ones, “I know I was the one who wanted to be left alone and keep this secret relationship. Damn, for some time I thought it was even funny. But now…”, Nero huffed, “...fuck, I hate it.”

Dante looked at him in disbelief, talking next with a still unsure tone.

“Are you sure, Nero? Because once we say it, there’s no turning back.”

Nero gulped and nodded.

“Yeah, I know that if we say it, from now on I will have the subtitle of ‘Dante’s first boyfriend’ in the fucking Wikipedia”, his comment made Dante exhale a soft chuckle while still looking a little shocked, “but so be it. I don’t want to keep thinking about _everything_ we do because maybe it’s going to be suspicious, or because some shitty paparazzi is going to catch us. I’m tired of it.”

They remained staring at each other for some long seconds, the thumbing, repetitive sound of the music feeling so far away now that when Dante talked, it was the only thing Nero paid attention to.

“Okay, I’m in. Let’s announce it. Tomorrow.”

Nero didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until Dante talked in a determined tone. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before being able to speak again.

“Really?”

He hadn’t time to be embarrassed for the light trembling that tinged his voice because of the anticipation, since at that moment Dante closed the distance between them, settling a hand on his cheek and making him lose his breath again.

“Yeah. I’m tired of hiding too.”

The least thing Nero was expecting was to be kissed in such a desperate way, so he couldn’t bite back a groan as feeling himself melting into the kiss, deep relief and also happiness invading him when realizing that they shouldn’t need to keep playing the secret love story anymore.

Although...wait a minute, Dante had said that he would announce it the next day, right? Then, why the hell were they kissing in public _already_?!

“Wait, Dante…”, he began when feeling the guitarist’s tongue trying to sneak in his mouth, “Dante, until tomorrow we can’t--”

For the way Dante heatedly caged him against the closest column with his forearms on either side of his head to kiss him furiously, it seemed that they actually could, and that being caught was the last worry in Dante’s mind at the moment, and fuck, that was _hot_.

Nero felt himself getting hard as a rock when the guitarist began to grind against him. He broke the kiss with a groan, which encouraged Dante follow his jaw with his tongue before beginning to suck under it, hands now grabbing his ass with intent, groping it while continuing rutting against him.

His head was about to hit the column with the way his body arched in search of more contact, one hand gripping Dante’s hip with force as the other travelled up to tangle in the guitarist’s wild hair. He yanked Dante’s head back, making the guitarist groan in a mix of pain and arousal until only the second remained when it was Nero’s turn to ravage his neck.

“Damnit, _Nero_.”

When hearing Dante’s ragged _plea_ , he knew. He knew that in case Dante suddenly suggested to do it right there and then he would be fucking unable to say no, specially because most part of the people surrounding them were already pretty wasted and minding their own business without paying any attention to them. Fortunately, even if Dante had been the one in flipping the switch, he was also the one who managed to put an end to their slightly irresponsible behavior in order to abandon the disco in search for a more private place to carry out their activities.

How they managed to reach their room without surrendering to their urges, Nero would never know. What he did know was that the moment the door closed behind them, they were on each other again. Their clothes ended nowhere to be found, several buttons scattered around the carpeted floor because of their hurry to remove their respective shirts in order to kiss, lick and mark every bit of exposed skin.

The moment Nero landed facing up in one of the big beds Dante was on him, mouths locking together with need while grinding against each other again, this time without any bothersome layer in the middle.

“Shit, screw the condom”, Nero snarled after some moments against Dante’s lips while pulling at the lower one, his mind intoxicated with booze and desire while rutting up against Dante to make their hard, leaking members rub together, “just fuck me already.”

Dante didn’t put up a fight to his petition and in no time his legs were against Dante’s shoulders, body slightly bended as the guitarist drove himself in and out his tight heat at a feverish pace, the rattling of the hotel bed against the wall mixing with his own unabashed moans of ecstasy and his broken encouragements of ‘ _more_ ’ and ‘ _oh yes, there_ ’.

At some point Nero had to turn his head to the side to bite at the pillow, since it was the only way to stop himself from crying Dante’s name in the passion of the moment, revealing that way they were together before the guitarist could officially announce it. For the way Dante was biting his lower lip while letting out low, restrained grunts it seemed that the guitarist was struggling in the same way, which was surely the reason why with a curse Dante eventually made Nero wrap his legs around his waist to press their bodies closer, whispering his name against his mouth between clumsy kisses and more and more uncoordinated thrusts.

The ingested alcohol and emotions of the day seemed to have affected Dante’s usual stamina, making him come when Nero still had a while to go. However, that didn’t stop the guitarist from throwing Nero towards a powerful, toe-curling orgasm by sucking him off thoroughly and good, making him end boneless on the bed with his throat hurting for the way he had been suppressing the groans while coming undone under Dante’s tongue and mouth.

After doing the essential cleaning they covered themselves with the sheets without bothering to put their pajamas on, and while feeling himself about to fall asleep, totally spent and with the threat of a hangover but content with Dante embracing him, Nero felt sorry-not-sorry for the people who had the luck of being their neighbors in the next hotel they stayed, because that was the last night he was going to refrain himself from expressing how damn good it felt to be officially dating the guitarist of _Devil May Cry_.

And also, it was the last time he refrained from expressing how he felt about Dante.

Before, he had been tempted to change those ‘love it’ that escaped his lips for a proper ‘I love you’, but he had decided it wasn’t the moment, because even if they both were pretty lucid, they weren’t completely sober and the last thing Nero wanted was that there was a misunderstanding, or that Dante believed it was the alcohol or the passion talking. When he confessed his feelings, he wanted to be at his best, and wanted Dante to be too. He wanted to do it right, and he would. The next day, after they could finally stop hiding they were together.

Yes, Nero thought before falling asleep with a satisfied smile plastered in his face that almost beat the one Dante had: between his confession and the announcement of their relationship, that New Year’s Eve promised to be rather unforgettable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last sentence is such a death flag ^^U  
> We are close to the end! And I guess it's not a spoiler to say that our dear Nevan is up to something, but no matter what she plans to do, love will win at the end muehehehe :)


	21. 'Happy' New Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost three weeks since the last update but I hope the chapter length compensates for it <3

Nero woke up the next morning with the ringing sound of the room telephone. He grunted, feeling a light piercing in his head which told him that maybe the previous night he had drunk more than he thought. Disentangling himself from Dante’s sleepy embrace he lied on his side to reach it for the noisy device. He approached it to his ear while rubbing his eyes with his other hand, addressing whoever it was at the other side with a voice that was still hoarse due to their previous night activities.

“Yeah?”

“ _Good morning, sir. Following your instructions, we kindly let you know it is already 10 a.m._ ”

Nero wasn’t completely awake yet so he blinked in confusion. At that moment he felt Dante changing position in bed next to him while letting out a deep breath. He threw a glance at the guitarist over his shoulder, finding this one with his hand behind his head, eyes half-opened and a questioning expression on his face that he answered with a shrug. 

“Instructions? What instructions?”

His tone must have came up ruder than intended because the polite man at the other side stuttered.

“ _W-Well, Mr. Sparda asked us to warn you at that time to make sure you would not be late for your breakfast appointment at 10.30._ ”

It took Nero an embarrassing amount of time to finally deduce that the poor man he had just scared was probably the receptionist, and also that ‘Mr. Sparda’ wasn’t the now yawning man next to him but the older twin, who had accurately foreseen they would be sleeping until late if someone didn’t wake them up.

After thanking the man with a more amicable tone he hanged up, slumping back onto bed facing Dante.

“Your brother programmed a human alarm for us.”

The guitarist laughed when hearing Nero’s light grumpy choice of words while he put himself comfortable again, closing his eyes.

“It doesn’t look like it has worked with you.”

“It has”, Nero answered sluggishly, “I will stand up to take a shower _after_ you.”

“And who says I’m going to take a shower?”

“Of course you are: you didn’t want yesterday and now we both stink so come on”, Nero blindly patted Dante’s chest impatiently, “you go first, old man.”

Dante exhaled an exaggerated lazy sigh before Nero felt the man shift in the bed, followed by a soft bite in the shell of his ear that made a shiver travel down his spine.

“You sure you don’t want to make me company?”

Nero bit his lower lip when Dante grasped his earlobe next playfully, feeling incredibly tempted to accept the suggestion, but when Dante was about to continue the teasing to his neck he opened his eyes and turned his head so that the guitarist’s mouth was close to his instead.

“We’ll be late for sure if I do that, and I don’t know you but I prefer to pass the year without your brother killing us so...”, he deposited a quick kiss in Dante’s mouth, “...you first.”

Nero couldn’t prevent a smile when Dante sighed again, kissed him briefly on his shoulder and abandoned the bed for real. He disposed himself to close his eyes again but he found himself ogling at Dante’s naked figure instead as the guitarist walked towards the bathroom, after taking a couple of clean towels to throw them over his shoulder. 

“But for the record I know that ‘being late’ is a poor excuse and you only want to sleep more”, Dante commented with a fake accusing tone, before smirking seductively when noticing Nero’s eyes shamelessly roaming over his body, “but feel free to join me if you change your mind, kid.”

Nero snorted, feeling the tip of his ears reddening when Dante winked at him and purposely left the door of the bathroom opened. He still attempted to make the most of those minutes to sleep, even if Dante purposely humming in the shower was a distraction that made his mind wander around the way the guitarist was looking at the moment. Because if Dante was sexy with clothes, a naked, wet Dante under the shower was something impossible to resist.

He was about to throw his self-control through the window and join Dante in the shower for a surely satisfactory steamy session when his mobile began to sound with incoming notifications. 

Feeling half-relieved and half-annoyed for the interruption, Nero checked ‘ _The Orphans_ ’ group where several messages had popped up, being Kyrie the author of most part of them.

 

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:07 a.m.)_ ** _\- nerooo_

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:07 a.m.)_ ** _\- all the luck for the love declaration!! 🍀🍀🍀_

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:07 a.m.)_ ** _\- im sure everything will go okay!!! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و_

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:08 a.m.)_ ** _\- we are rooting for you!!!! ┏(＾0＾)┛┗(＾0＾) ┓_

 _ >> _ **_V (10:08 a.m.)_ ** _\- please, could you not include me when using those childish icons?_

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:08 a.m.)_ ** _\- ignore V ~,~_

 _ >> _ **_Kyrie (10:08 a.m.)_ ** _\- he is rooting for you 2_

 

Nero felt his heart stop for a moment when reading the messages of support. He gulped, finally recalling that _that day_ was the day, and not just because of the confession thing, but also because both Dante and him agreed of making their relationship public the previous night.

He took a deep breath to calm down, while trying to put in order his thoughts and feelings because even if the previous day he had been incredibly sure about making the announcement and had felt almost euphoric when Dante agreed to it, at the moment he had been rather heated up after seeing that woman kiss Dante, and had suggested it mainly in the impulse of the moment.

However, it didn’t take him much to decide that doing that was exactly what he wanted, despite being unable _not_ to feel nervous about how such a decision would affect his life on a probable permanent basis. But he wanted to be with Dante and wanted to do it without being in the hiding anymore, and he was ready to accept the consequences of whatever that came next.

“I’ll be out in a minute, Nero, so it’s your last chance.”

Nero chuckled when hearing Dante’s playful lilting tone, feeling more relaxed while lying against the headboard to answer V and Kyrie.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll let it pass.”

He smiled when his teasing disinterested tone caused Dante to snort from inside the bathroom. Making honor to his word for once, the guitarist exited the room after a minute with a towel around his waist and drying his head with the other.

“Your loss”, Nero was ready when Dante suddenly threw the wrinkled towel towards him, catching it in time because he himself had done that same thing to the guitarist several times, “come on, you don’t want to arrive when the buffet closes, right?”

Dante’s words caused Nero to curse when remembering that in fact the buffet for the breakfast only opened until 11, so he rapidly stepped down the bed almost tripping over with the cover. He answered to Dante laughing at him with a raised middle finger before finally stepping inside the shower. 

He had barely turned the water on when he heard Dante from the room.

“Your mobile is sounding.”

Nero stopped in the middle of shampooing his hair, his heart beating slightly faster even if he knew that Dante would never dare to snoop through his things.

“Yeah, it must be Kyrie.”

He answered without giving it importance, which worked because in case of suspecting there was something wrong Dante would have surely insisted. Nero was about to leave the conversation at that when he remembered a particular comment V had made before, about him ‘preparing a speech not to babble like a fool when the moment comes’, and which caused him to talk again.

“So, do you already know what you are going to say in the ceremony?”

He heard Dante chuckle.

“Nero, I remind you we won’t know the winners until a month or so. Maybe it’s too soon to make any speeches.”

Part of Nero understood why Dante had misinterpreted his question, but another one couldn’t help to feel a little bothered by it.

“I meant the other thing. You know, the announcement stuff.”

The pause that took place before Dante exhaled an understanding ‘ _Aah_ ’ was extremely brief, and probably if Nero hadn’t been in alert he would have missed it. But he was, which allowed him to also notice that Dante’s cheery tone when talking had sounded forced enough so that he snapped closed the tap and stormed out of the shower without bothering to dry himself first, startling Dante while the guitarist was buttoning his pants.

“Wow, kid, shouldn’t you dry yourself a little before--”

“Are you having second thoughts about this?”

His straightforward question made Dante’s eyes snap opened.

“What?”

Nero crossed his arms tightly, his eyes scanning Dante’s shocked expression to try to read the minimum change, since he was aware that his ability of reading people wasn’t particularly outstanding.

“About saying we are together”, Nero spoke with his best secure tone, but he couldn’t help that certain nervousness showed in his voice when talking next, “have you changed your mind?”

“No”, Dante’s answer was immediate, spelled with a sure, resolved tone, “no, kid, of course I haven’t.”

Nero felt relief spreading inside his chest but continued looking at Dante inquisitively.

“Then what is it?”

Dante sighed, passing a hand through his still damp hair while exhaling an embarrassed laugh, settling his hands on his hips next.

“I guess I’m just more nervous I thought I’d be”, Nero was surprised when hearing Dante’s admission, “because up till now, when I fooled around I didn’t give a crap if they said something or not about the people with whom I was, so you could say I’m a virgin in this official announcement thing. Actually, I’m being a virgin in a lot of things with you.”

Nero couldn’t help to laugh when hearing Dante’s words, feeling innerly proud for it. He exhaled a sigh and scratched the back of his head.

“Well, I guess we could also do that. Simply act natural without saying anything.”

“No.”

Nero opened his eyes wider when Dante’s tone sounded calm but firm.

“Why not?”

Dante surprised him by smoothly reducing the distance between them until he ended pinned against the wall next to the bathroom. He felt then Dante’s hands settling on his exposed hips, which made him finally aware that he was still completely naked and soaked when Dante was already half dressed. Probably he should push Dante back not to wet his clothes, but that intention vanished when Dante’s face got closer to his.

“Because you don’t want that. So…”, Dante leaned more until their noses were softly brushing, “...we are doing this right, even if I need to ask Vergil for help to make the speech not to look like a complete idiot.”

Nero’s relieved chuckle was cut by a hard kiss that made his eyes flutter close. He enclosed his arms around Dante still naked torso and groaned approvingly when the guitarist’s hands reached back to cup his ass with clear intent. He returned the kiss with equal fierceness as his legs automatically opened to give Dante room to move against him, his previous determination of making it to the breakfast quite forgotten until the telephone of the room sounded again, putting an end to his improvised making out session.

“Bets on that it’s my brother this time.”

Nero chuckled, releasing Dante as this one reluctantly removed his hands from his ass with a last soft grope.

“Sorry, but I’m not betting to lose.”

Nero was about to return to the bathroom to rapidly dry himself when Dante managed to catch him from behind to suck a mark in the side of his neck. He couldn’t prevent a breathy curse from escaping his mouth, the hair of his arms standing because of the unexpected feeling of Dante’s tongue expertely exploiting that sensitive spot.

“H-hey!”, Nero placed a hand against his skin, already feeling the hickey forming there, “I thought we agreed on not leaving visible marks!”

“Yeah, but that was when we didn’t want that rumors spread”, Dante admitted with a nonchalant tone while coming back to change himself, “but since that ends tonight, I don’t think there’s much problem with you showing some of them a little sooner than usual.”

Nero’s grin widened, thinking that he couldn’t wait to make Dante be the one in flaunting his marks, and also that this time he wouldn’t ask the ladies help to cover with makeup the hickey that was now adorning his neck.

* * *

They managed to make it to the [ buffet ](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Flmowery%2Ffiles%2F2017%2F02%2FSeven-Kitchens.jpg) just a couple of minutes late, obtaining a disapproving look from Vergil that at least wasn’t as bad as the ones they were used to receive when not being punctual. Lady and Nico simply greeted them happily, looking rather refreshed and without a trace of a hangover, unlike Trish who was with her face facing down on the table, grabbing her head with hands while Morrison sympathetically rubbed a soothing hand against her back.

“Trish?”, Nero asked while leaving his tray overflowing with food at his seat, “are you okay?”

The pained whine he obtained would have worried him if it wasn’t because Lady was clearly suppressing a laugh while Dante smiled knowingly.

“You drank too much, love?”,

Trish answered the guitarist with a grumpier whine.

“And last night she thought _I_ was the problem. She is worse than me at holding her liquor hehehe.”

Lady’s teasing comment caused Trish to raise her head to glare at the keyboards player with bloodshot eyes.

“Maybe the fact that I couldn’t get any sleep has something to do with it.”

While Nico shifted nervously in her seat, Lady made a ‘ _Pffft_ ’ sound while waving her hands dismissively, not feeling bothered by the accusation.

“Come on, we weren’t that much at it!”

“ _That_ much? It was 3 a.m. and you were still--”

“Then you should have gone with Morrison sooner~”, Nero couldn’t help to show a surprised face that caused Lady to show a mischievous smile, “oh yes: she went to the old man’s room and they slept together.”

“ _We didn’t!_ ”, Morrison and Trish said at the same time hurriedly, the agent being the one in taking the floor after clearing his throat awkwardly, “she slept in my room. It’s different.”

When, for once, Dante and Vergil hummed at the same time in a clear unconvinced tone, causing Morrison to clear his throat again while Trish’s expression was carefully imperturbable, Nero realized he was probably missing something obvious. He was about to look at Nico to check if she knew more than him when a voice that made Nero’s tense sounded close to them.

“Oh my, you look terrible, dear. Are you sure you will be able to perform tonight?”

Nero didn’t know how no one in the table, him included, noticed that Nevan had approached them until she was just there next to them. Everyone looked at the woman with looks that left pretty clear they wanted her out of there, even the usual calm Morrison, but none of their glances could surpass the way Trish glared at the vocalist of _Temen-ni-gru_ , before showing a smile that made Nero have to suppress a gulp.

“Don’t worry, _dear_ : even if the whole group was sick, we are more than capable to surpass what yours can due at its best.”

Nero had to bite back a loud ‘ _Hah!_ ’ when hearing Trish’s polite but sassy remark. Not that it was necessary, since the smirks of the whole group caused Nevan’s one to freeze.

“Aaand hit and sunk”, Lady said, leaning her chin on her interlaced fingers and showing an angelic face that couldn’t be faker, “so, before you can embarrass yourself more, do you think you could let us enjoy the breakfast in peace? Since sadly we’ll have time to see your facelift face in the ceremony.”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened when hearing Lady, who definitely wasn’t as subtle as Trish in her insults but just as effective, by basing on how Nevan was grabbing her purse with her knuckles white. However, the unwelcoming woman recovered her relaxed posture almost immediately, talking with a tone that didn’t betray the women’s comments had bothered her.

“Of course. I’m looking forward to seeing you there”, Nevan’s artificial orange eyes suddenly dug in Nero, “unless you leave too soon the party like the previous night.”

Nero froze when Nevan casually added the last sentence. The woman’s eyes travelled then from Nero to stop briefly on Dante, in order to wink at the guitarist before abandoning the table from where she had come from.

“What did she mean by that?”

Vergil’s direct question caused Nero and Dante to interchange a look before meeting the bassist’s inquisitive gaze. At the end, it was the guitarist the one who dared to answer the question.

“Well...maybe the kid and I kind of made out in the disco.”

Vergil blinked, slowly, his face a mask with the exception of the vein that suddenly threatened to pop in his temple.

“...That you did _what_?”

“But it was less that 5 minutes! How could we know she was spying on us? We didn’t even see her!”

When hearing Dante’s excuse, Nero couldn’t feel a pang of guiltiness, wondering if his accidental slip with Nevan had indirectly proboked that the woman had paid special attention to Dante and him in the disco, allowing her to catch them.

He was about to mention such a thing when Morrison intervened.

“What she saw or not is irrelevant. After all, I remind you that it is impossible that she has photographical proofs about it.”

“Are you sure about that?”, Vergil intervened again, “I remind you that the orgy in which my brother was involved should have been kept in private as well.”

“It was a _party_ , not an orgy.”

Dante grew quiet when receiving skeptic looks from everyone in the table, and Nero found himself automatically setting a hand on the guitarist’s thigh as a support. 

He remembered that at the time several photographies of the mentioned party/orgy had been released on the net, and even if he had the chance of checking them he never did, since he refused to be the same as that morbid scum who didn’t waste any chance of trying to get a compromising picture of someone famous, neither to be as those who encouraged such an attitude by consuming that content with the excuse of ‘everyone has seen it already’. 

“Vergil has a point, John”, Trish intervened casually, “theoretically in that event it was also forbidden to take pictures, but they managed to do it anyway.”

“And if there is someone who can manage to do it, I bet it’s that bitch”, Lady concluded with a disgusted tone.  
“But the people who spread those pictures was caught”, Nico intervened then, “and they had to pay like a bunch of money as punishment. And I mean, at that time it was just a private party, this was a more important event: do you really think they would risk to pay an even bigger sum of money just for a couple of shitty pictures?”

“Maybe most part of people wouldn’t”, Trish intervened again, “but Nevan? She probably would.”

Everyone remained quiet during the next question, the sudden sour mood of the table contrasting with the background sound of the other guests having a way more animated breakfast. And then, Nero realized it was complete bullshit to feel that way because there was something the others didn’t know yet.

“Well, even if the worst happens and that harpy spreads some pictures of Dante and me, it doesn’t matter”, his resolved tone made everyone look at him with surprise, “because we are getting out the closet tonight.”

This time the silence that fell next was full of stupor before all the ladies of the group exhaled incredulous, enthusiastic ‘ _What?!_ ’ that Vergil and Morrison rapidly tried to soothe with hushes. 

Nero realized then that maybe it hadn’t been a very good idea to throw the bomb in a public place, since pretending that Nico and Lady asked questions in a low volume was as impossible as the twins spending a day without arguing. However, with the bassist and the agent hushing non-stop, Dante and Nero managed to explain what they planned to do, that basically consisted of Dante revealing their relationship when he was asked with an almost 100% of probability about his love life.

“And if they don’t ask you about it?”, Nico’s question was received with ‘ _Really?_ ’ looks, with made her roll her eyes with a smile, “I mean, I know it’s pretty impossible, but maybe you should have a plan B for it.”

“Everything is under control”, Dante said with a confident tone, “because if they don’t ask me, I will subtly divert the conversation to be able to announce it nevertheless.”

“ _You_ doing something subtly?”

Nero had to bite his lower lip not to laugh when Dante glared at his brother when this one talked with the most skeptic tone.

“Hey, have some faith in me. You wouldn’t believe how sweet I can be when I want to”, Nero wasn’t expecting it when Dante suddenly elbowed him, “right, kid?”

Nero felt the tip of his ears reddenning while Lady half-spit the drink he was about to swallow when suffering a chuckling attack.

“Well, my bed springs don’t agree with you”, Nero retorted back, wanting to beat Dante in innuendos for once in front of the others, but to his surprise Dante’s eyes opened wide.

“Uhm...Nero, I meant the present I gave you.”

“...No, you didn’t.”

“I swear to God I did!”

“Nero, dear, I think he is telling the truth.”

“Definitely you are a perfect couple: your stupidity matches perfectly.”

“Ohoho, so Dante gets so wild in bed that yours almost breaks, bro?”

“See, babe? I’m not the only one~”

“ _Sssh!_ ”

No matter how much Morrison hushed at them, Nero still tried to strangle Dante right there even if the guitarist probably didn’t deserve it that time.

* * *

Between checking that all the instruments were well tuned and correctly placed in the backstage, the lunch, practicing their performances and getting ready for the night, the rest of the day passed on a flash and at exactly 9 p.m. the entire _Devil May Cry_ group was dressed for the occasion and entering the [ room ](https://www.hiddencitysecrets.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Brisbane-City-Hall-Unique-Function-Rooms-Brisbane-Venues-CBD-Venue-Hire-Small-Large-Party-Room-Corporate-Conference-Exhibitions-Cocktail-Concert-Event-003.jpg) where the nominees ceremony and also the New Year's’ Eve celebration would be held. The place was as impressive as the rest of the hotel, with several round tables covering most part of the space and situated in front of the stage where the different nominees would perform. 

As it usually happened when they attended an event of that kind, [ Nico ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/74/c2/66/74c2666fc0dcf3b4e5dd68a0c3f8dde4.jpg) and [ Nero ](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1soYzbBCw3KVjSZFlq6AJkFXaz/New-Slim-Fit-Casual-jacket-Cotton-Men-Blazer-Jacket-Single-Button-Gray-Mens-Suit-Jacket-2018.jpg) immediately stuck close together, since they had barely entered when other people approached the veterans of the group to chit-chat with them. Some of them also tried to include Nico in the conversations, but the woman didn’t release Nero at any moment, practically pushing him towards their table while avoiding all attempts of conversation with too effusive nods and fake smiles. 

“Gosh, finally”, Nico said dropping on the chair as Nero took a seat next to her, both of them facing each other and leaning their respective arms on the chair’s backrest to look towards the group, “I know I always say the same but I don’t think if I’ll ever get used to make casual conversation. Getting rid of my social misfit is going to be hard.”

Nero chuckled.

“I don’t think you have to”, he signaled with his chin towards the group, “look at [ Vergil ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/17/ff/4f/17ff4f278a78924dc65dc9bc7979b245.jpg) . If you pay attention to him, he simply scares everyone with glares. _That_ is your final goal.”

Nico barked a laugh, looking at Nero with a conspiratorial look.

“By the way, now that we are alone: what do you think about the new pair?”

Nero frowned.

“New pair?”

“Yeah, the old man and Trish.”

Nero blinked, showing a dumbfounded expression.

“Wait, so you think that she and Morrison...”

“Hah, obviously! I mean, this morning Trish has called him ‘John’, didn’t you notice?”

“Yeah...No? But what’s with that?”

“Dude, _everyone_ calls the man by his last name! John is _too_ intimate.”

“Well, they can be really good friends.”

“Oh my god, no doubt that your friend poet and Vergil had to intervene to pair you with Dante.”

“Hey! I also had something to do with it, come on.”

“Yep, but veeery little to do. Anyway, Lady and I have the theory that Morrison has had a crush on Trish for a while _but_ because of him being Patty’s father and Trish usually hating compromise and blablabla he never dared to tell her anything.”

“And since when you’ve been suspecting that?”

“Well, practically since the beginning…? I mean, Morrison always finds an excuse to ask her for help. And with Trish is really hard to say because she never wants to share anything, buuut we think she may correspond the old man too.”

“Then do you think something happened yesterday?”

“I hope so because otherwise Lady and I spent a damn hour pretending to have sex for nothing.”

“ _Wait_ , so you didn’t--”

“Of course we did, but not for two fucking hours straight! Not even us are _that_ horny...H-Hey, don’t laugh! It was a master plan to make those two meet! Now we just have to subtly discover if something happened and--”

“You are plotting something involving Trish and Morrison, right?”

Nico and Nero jumped startled when suddenly [ Dante ](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0470/2729/products/FRONT_b376d17f-8e4a-46e9-9e67-4d8b497b1d06.jpg?v=1430757056) appeared out of nowhere and sat next to him, wearing a combination of suit and shirt whose colors were the exact inverse of the suit he wore in the premiere. 

“Damn it, old man”, Nero snapped while the guitarist chuckled.

“See? I can be subtle when I want: you didn’t even know I was here.”

Before Nero could find a proper retort against that, Nico intervened.

“So you also think those two--”

“Yep, positive”, Dante said with security, “I may not have gotten ‘the best boyfriend’ award back then, but after 5 years of not-official-dating I can read her well enough: she is definitely interested.”

“So everyone knew but me”, Nero concluded, making a mocking okay gesture with his hand in the air, “great. You could have told me if you suspected it, dumbass.”

Dante had the decency of looking apologetic when Nero addressed that last part at him.

“Well, in my defense I was only 100% sure after Christmas.”

“And you didn’t tell me then because…”

“:..Honestly? It didn’t occur to me.”

The way Nero rolled his eyes exaggeratedly made Dante and Nico chuckle. Nero was about to ‘insult’ his oblivious boyfriend again when the guitarist talked again, this time with a serious tone that took him and the vocalist by surprise.

“However, about this whole thing, I know it’s tempting to tease them about it because once you notice it’s pretty damn obvious, but with Trish it’s better not to press things in any way. Not even with jokes. Because she had a rather complicated relationship in the past with someone who resulted to be a controlling asshole. In fact if she hadn’t asked me for help in time…”

Dante had to stop right there to exhale a long breath charged with contained anger. The guitarist didn’t need to finish the sentence so that Nero immediately understood all that was needed about Trish’s past. His hand turned into fists without realizing, feeling fury spread inside at the mere thought of someone daring to hurt Trish. 

He also felt a wave of affection towards Dante when remembering once again that, despite the man being in an almost perpetual carefree mood, he could get serious when it was needed and didn’t hesitate to intervene when the people he cared about was in danger.

“So, that story Lady told me about her boss trying to harass her--”, Nico began with an unsure tone, causing Dante to shake his head.

“It wasn’t just her boss, but also her partner. She preferred to omit that last part though because she didn’t feel ready to share what actually happened with anyone, not even with Lady, and as years passed she simply preferred to let it go. And I’m pretty sure she would prefer that no one else knew about this, but I think you should know to let things flow naturally between her and the old man. So...”, Dante recovered his usual smile, “...make sure to prevent your crazy girlfriend from being her usual nosy self.”

Nico rapidly nodded, the woman’s eyes a little brighter than usual, and of course the others had to join them at that precise moment, being [ Trish ](http://cdn.cichic.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/1/9/190102800379-1/golden-patchwork-grenadine-sequin-pattern-round-neck-long-sleeve-mermaid-party-slim-formal-maxi-dress.jpg) the one leading the group. 

“Alright, I just checked that the witch is almost at the opposite side of the room so we won’t need to stand her face near us”, Trish looked slightly confused when feeling Nero and Nico looking at her with brighter eyes than usual, “uhm, is everything okay--?”

Trish almost lost balance when he, together with Nico, suddenly stood up to hug the drums player tightly without any kind of explanation, while Dante leaned his elbow on the table and his chin on his fist with an amused smile in his face.

“Oh, a collective hug? Don’t leave me out of it!”, [ Lady ](https://cdn.tobi.com/product_images/lg/1/red-not-your-average-bodycon-dress.jpg) said suddenly, joining the group and making Nero and Nico laugh as Morrison observed the scene slightly confused, while Vergil interchanged a knowing glance with his brother and Trish simply accepted the hug with a light perplexed smile. 

At that moment the hosts of the ceremony gave the official welcome and amicably asked everyone to take their seats so that they didn’t fall behind schedule. The light bittersweet mood that had settled after Nero and Nico learned about the drums player past was improved almost immediately when they realized that there were bags with party supplies assigned to all the seats. 

Lady immediately opened it even if they were supposed to be used it later than night, when the countdown to the New Year was close, and obviously the moment the keyboards players began to wear all the possible wearables such as a tiara, a clown nose, a boa and excessive big sunglasses, everyone did the same. 

Or well, _almost_ everyone, since Vergil was the only one who refused to wear any of the party ornaments. However, his facade of acting maturely failed when Dante startled him using a party blower in his ear and the bassist responded by emptying the whole party popper over Dante, making the last’s suit end way more colorful. 

Also, Saya couldn’t sit with them in the table for obvious reasons but she had been invited by the Japanese idol that Vergil scared during the premiere reception, and when the woman passed by their side at some point dressing all the possible wearables as well, Vergil suddenly picked a hat that matched the one Saya was wearing and put it on with all seriousness, causing Dante to be about to spill his drink when suffering a laughing attack.

Unlike other expensive restaurants where Nero had gone to eat with the group, that dinner was rather copious. During the desserts, the rather big moving screen situated in the middle of the stage began to display the performances that had been nominated. Nero stared with his mouth slightly opened in awe at the footage that had been taken of the concert in October, since it was not the same to see it from the backstage than watching a professional video about it. He couldn’t help to curse in embarrassment when the video also included the last part with him awkwardly saying goodbye to the fans. 

“Awww, look at them: so unaware that they were getting together that night~”, Lady playfully said, causing Nero’s ears end incredibly red while Trish hushed at her softly while smiling.

“Yep, that was a surprise. And speaking of which”, Nero turned towards Dante when this one lowered his voice so that only him could hear the end of the sentence, “I’m super intrigued to discover what you have planned for tonight.”

Nero’s heart skipped a beat when hearing Dante’s curious comment, nervousness settling in. 

Since the afternoon had been pretty busy he hadn’t had time to worry about the confession, but when hearing Dante, he immediately began to mentally review what he planned to say when the moment came.

His light distress must have showed in his face because Dante frowned lightly.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m cool.”

Obviously his stutter didn’t help to convince Dante, who looked slightly more concerned, so Nero decided to reach for the guitarist’s hand under the table and press it softly, smiling reassuringly at him. It took Dante a moment to return it, and if Nero’s efforts hadn’t been exclusively focused on gathering all the calm he could manage, he would have probably noticed that Dante’s eyes were a little absent, as if his mind was elsewhere at the moment.

When the plates had already been picked up, the hosts stepped again on the stage and announced it was time for the ‘Best New Artist’ nominees to make their performances. Since Nico was slightly nervous, Lady offered to accompany her but the vocalist assured she could handle it, so everyone simply desired her luck while she went towards the stage.

Among the five nominees she was the third to perform, and she did it with the [ song ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_3EQYzUV4) V wrote for her when she made her debut. She nailed it, as everyone in the group was expecting, although Nero thought to himself that it was a pity that Patty wasn’t accompanying her with the violin, because their combined performance in the concert was going to be difficult to surpass if not impossible.

After all the artists performed, the host made them stay together in the stage to take the respective photographies and after that he made some questions to any of the nominees. 

“So, Nico”, the male host whose name Nero had already forgotten began with the typical animated host voice, “can I call you Nico, right? How does it feel to have been nominated after only two months of making your debut?”

Nico exhaled a nervous laugh while a rather loud applause sounded, waiting for the room to be relatively silent to answer.

“W-Well, to be brutally honest, I still don’t believe being among the nominees. Because I mean, being part of _Devil May Cry_ was already a dream coming true so when I learned about it, _shit_...I-I mean, shoot. Oh gosh, I shouldn’t be cursing in TV”, her natural clumsiness make everyone laugh, the group included, “so, anyway: I feel super grateful, and even if I don’t win I’m really happy for being nominated and well, I don’t know if the person who composed the song is watching this but if he is: thank you, hot gothic, because surely your song has something to do with my nomination.”

While the new wave of applauses was taking place, Nero reached for his mobile to write a short ‘ _Have you seen that, hot gothic?_ ’ that was automatically answered by Kyrie with a ‘ _Yessss, he has!!_ ’ and one of her usual cute emojis that made Nero perfectly picture the resigned face V must be making.

The nominees then came back to their tables and Lady applauded again happily when Nico approached, which gained her a kiss coming from the vocalist. 

The classical and dance/electronic categories were the following to fill the stage, and by when the performers finished it was past 10.30 p.m. The nervousness that, once again, Nero had managed to push aside came back at full force, and since there was going to be a quick stop before the rock performances began Nero was considering to screw the initial plan of waiting until the countdown for the sake of his racing heart.

However, at that moment the hosts surprised everyone by asking for silence.

“So, before we proceed with the amazing rock performances, there is a special secret nomination reserved for this ceremony. We call it...‘The Chosen Ones’!”

“Did you know something about this?”, Trish asked Morrison then while applauding like the rest of the audience, but the old man shook his head negatively as the hostess took the floor.

“We have decided to call to the stage those artists who, independently of the music style they play, are considered the favorite of the year, being it for their charisma, talent or attractiveness.”

“Or maybe all of them!”

The man’s intervention provoked some laughs in the audience before silence reigned again, waiting for the hosts to keep talking.

“And the 5 nominees for ‘The Chosen Ones’ category are…”

Nero had no idea who the first three people the hosts mentioned were, but when Nevan was called as the fourth nominee, the outraged ‘ _What?_ ’ that Trish let out was heard in the neighbors tables, which caused Morrison to settle a conciliatory arm on the woman’s arm while Lady booed without any dissimule towards Nevan as the woman fluently left her table with her annoying smile in place. 

“Alright, it has just been confirmed: these nominations are rigged. There is no other way to explain why _she_ has been nominated”, the drums player snapped, and Nero couldn’t help to internally agree because the fact that the two first nominees had been a couple of relatively new _but_ rich influencers was a little suspicious…

“...and finally, our last and fifth nominee is no one else than one of the sexiest guitarist of the last decade: Dante from _Devil May Cry_!”

The whole group ended with their eyes open wide when hearing the nomination, Dante himself included, which was followed by the biggest of the ovations.

“I agree with you, Trish: this category is totally rigged.”

Trish glared at Vergil when hearing his comment. Dante simply snorted and elbowed the smirking bassist, standing up while adjusting his jacket.

“Well, that’s the problem with having charisma, talent _and_ attractiveness.”

Nero rolled his eyes with a smile when Dante winked at them and began to walk towards the stage with a last ‘ _See you later_ ’ as the audience kept applauding. Nero’s eyes automatically followed the guitarist, finding himself thinking that, in case that everything worked as it should, he would totally made Dante fuck him while wearing that suit because the guitarist was super hot with it. 

The nominees then disappeared behind the stage by following the hosts indications, and during the next five minutes the hosts projected in the screen that had been placed again in the stage some questions that the fans had apparently prepared for ‘The Chosen Ones’. 

Nero was beginning to read them when suddenly Nico grabbed his arm, causing him to look at her.

“Have you read the eleventh one?”

Nero had barely finished reading the fifth, so he jumped directly to that one and his heart stopped briefly, since that question asked about the romantic life of ‘The Chosen Ones’.

He gulped, feeling his hands begin to sweat. Of course, the fact that that question was there didn’t mean that Dante was going to be the one in answering it, but the fact that the question was right there meant that the possibility of their relationship being announced in the following minutes existed, and that made his heart beat faster inside his chest because he didn’t expect it was so soon.

“Come on, everything will go okay”, Nico said, taking Nero’s hand when noticing his nervous state, “and if any jerk bothers you when Dante talks about your relationship, I will use my heels as a weapon.”

Nico’s threat made Nero exhale a light nervous laugh before nodding, pressing back Nico’s hand while taking a deep breath, forcing himself not to worry beforehand. 

While the host finished speaking, a stage assistant appeared carrying a moving device with a box on it, in which there were several pieces of papers.

“You can step on the stage now, Chosen Ones!”, the hostess announced, applauding to indicate the audience to do the same.

The five nominees followed the indications, situating in the middle of the stage forming a line while facing the guests. They situated in the order that they had been called, which meant that Nevan was next to Dante. Since their table was far away from the stage Nero couldn’t distinguish well Dante’s expression, though he had the impression that the guitarist was tenser than when he abandoned the table. 

Before he could share his impression with anyone else, the hosts talked again, explaining that they would randomly extract a paper from the box, show the audience the humber written on it, and proceed to ask the question that corresponded to the showed number.

The winner would be chosen at the end of the night, by basing on the audience reactions when hearing the answers, and there were a total of 20 questions, which meant that each nominee would be answering 4.

Nero held his breath when it was Dante’s first turn, and let it out again when the number assigned to him was a ‘2’ and he was asked about a music group with whom he would be willing to participate. Nero’s suspicions of Dante being tense were confirmed when hearing him talk, because even if he answered with his usual sense of humor by then Nero could detect when something was wrong. However, since Nevan was next to him and his past story with her wasn’t a good one, it could be very much be that Dante didn’t feel comfortable next to her, which was completely understandable.

The group also tensed during the times it was Nevan’s turn, but the questions she was asked didn’t give her any opportunity to try to damage them. Unlike Dante the woman looked completely relaxed, a satisfied smile plastered in her face during the entire time. 

When the last round began, the 11th question hadn’t been asked yet, and when the first three contestant were assigned other numbers Nero somehow felt that the question was going to be for Dante, his hunch confirmed when the host asked Nevan the question tagged with the ‘7’. 

Nero didn’t even realize the question Nevan had been asked, being more focused on keeping his breathing steady as his eyes fixed in Dante with expectation. His hand grabbed Nico’s with more force without noticing, causing the woman to settle her free one over his as extra support when the hostess addressed Dante.

“So, the last question is for the Sexiest Guitarist!”

Several whistles were heard among the guests before the woman talked again, and even if Nero couldn’t see it from where he was, he could perfectly picture the way she was batting her eyelashes at him.

‘ _To bad, lady: he is mine_ ’, Nero thought to himself, realizing he had sounded too possessive but at the moment didn’t care: in mere minutes he would be finally able to stop pretending to be just acquaintances, friends at most, and to smile frozenly when a lady got too handsy with Dante because it would be too suspicious if he acted with jealousy. 

In mere minutes, he would be able to enjoy a normal relationship with Dante...or well, all the normal it could be considering the circumstances of dating someone famous, he thought with irony.

“Well, Dante…”, the woman settled a hand on Dante’s shoulder in an unnecessary closer gesture, “...we are aware that you are tired of answering this kind of questions…”, a generalized laugh followed the woman’s playful words, “...but the fans, and especially the ladies, are _thirsty_ to know if the guitarist of _Devil May Cry_ is still single or has finally found someone. Myself included, not gonna lie.”

Again, the laughs that followed the woman’s confession of being interested in Dante were ignored by Nero, who by then had his body slightly hunched forward, waiting for Dante’s speech when seeing the guitarist opening his mouth after taking a deep breath.

Well, he better be ready for the way people would stare at him when the man delivered the news because it was going to be certainly shocking...

 

“No, love. I’m afraid that Cupid hasn’t stopped at my door yet.”

 

All the sounds that took place after Dante talked, such as the laughs of the people, the applauses, and the hostess words, Nero heard them as if he was underwater and was unable to properly distinguish them.

Nero stared at the stage eye-wided and with his mouth half-opened, slowly assimilating that Dante had totally wasted his chance to finally expose they were together. 

He gulped, feeling anger begin to crept up on him, until he was only able to think one thing:

_What the fuck, Dante?_

“Uhm...maybe he preferred to say it a little later?”, Nico suggested hesitantly at that moment while Nero’s jaw clenched while staring at Dante chuckling and making jokes with the hostess.

He missed the way Trish and Lady interchanged a confused look, how Vergil looked inquisitively at his brother as if trying to figure it out something, and even the way Morrison cleared his throat before beginning to speak reassuringly.

“I’m sure he has a good reason for answering like that, son. So let’s wait until he comes back and--”

All the culterly of the table trembled when Nero brusquely pushed his chair back in order to stand up, beginning to walk towards the stage while ignored the way Trish called his name. He rapidly walked through the tables and was halfway to the stage when the hosts announced that the ones nominated for the ‘Best Rock Song’ category should begin getting ready, which encouraged him to walk even faster to reach the guitarist before the last was forced to leave with the rest.

He had barely reached the side of stage when he saw Dante climb down the small stairs leading back to the main floor. Nero was so busy trying to keep his anger under control that he missed the way Dante gulped subtly before adopting a carefree tone that got in his nerves.

“Hey, kid. I thought you would come here with the others to--”

“We need to talk”, he snapped when finally being in front of the guitarist. He was about to drag Dante out of the room, to any place that was more private so that other people couldn’t hear them ‘talk’ when the guitarist spoke, not making any attempt of moving.

“But can’t it wait until later, Nero? We will be performing in no time, so I don’t think we have much time left.”

It was in the tip of Nero’s tongue to snap he didn’t care about the damn performance but that wouldn’t be fair for the group, and Dante had kind of a point so he simply focused all his efforts to keep his tone relatively low while talking.

“Okay, I’ll be quick then: what the fuck was that?”

Dante blinked, looking at him without understanding.

“What do you mean?”

Nero opened and closed his mouth a couple of times when Dante repeated the sentence, being forced to take a pause before talking not to snap loud the next words.

“Are you kidding me? I’m talking about that last fucking question.”

Nero couldn’t help to raise his voice with impatience, but since music was playing at that moment while the different nominees abandoned their seats he doubted someone had heard him.

It took Dante some sweet long seconds to let out a simple ‘ _Oh, that_ ’ that caused Nero to half-close his eyes.

“‘Oh, that’?”, he repeated with a tone that made Dante adopt a defensive one.

“Okay, I know what you mean: that I kind of let the chance to speak pass”, Nero was about to add a sarcastic _‘No shit, Sherlock?_ ’ when Dante talked again “but you know, I’ve been thinking and probably we should wait for a better moment to say it. Because maybe New Year’s Eve is not the best time to announce it, you know? Since we will be the damn centre of attention.”

At any other moment Nero probably would have agreed with Dante, but the way Dante had crossed his arms during his argumentation, while avoiding looking at him in a clear uncomfortable posture, caused his stomach to do a flip-flop, but of the bad kind.

“And when do you suggest to announce it then?”

A silence fell between them. 

A silence that Nero hoped Dante would break with some suggestions, but the guitarist simply scratched the back of his head awkwardly before exhaling a sigh.

“Well, I don’t know, Nero. But we can decide it after tonight, right?”

Nero remained silent, looking at Dante as understanding suddenly sank into him when hearing Dante’s light uncomfortable tone.

“You have changed your mind.”

Nero meant to formulate the sentence as a stunned question, but it came out as a disappointed realization that made Dante exhale a sigh before looking at him again. 

“Look, it’s just…”, Dante stopped talking, as if he was going through some kind of internal debate, and after sighing again he talked while looking at Nero directly, “...we are not that bad like this, right? I mean, yeah, it sucks not being able to act normally in public, but it’s not _that_ bad. We can still do a bunch of things together, and everything is going great with the band. But if we suddenly announce we are together...well, maybe the fans won’t react fine to it, you know? We also have to think about that.”

Each word that abandoned Dante’s lips, each excuse that the guitarist said to justify having broken the promise of going in the open, felt like stones falling heavy on his stomach, and when hearing the last argument, a cold sweat passed to invade Nero.

“What do you mean that the fans wouldn’t react well?”

When seeing the way Dante averted his eyes to the side again, he was in part expecting the feared answer.

However, that didn’t make it hurt less.

“Well, you know how the fans can be. They have some preconceived ideas about their favorite artists like...well, me being straight? And if suddenly that changes... well... it can negatively affect us. Even the group.”

Nero gulped to try to remove the lump that threatened to form in his throat.

“So in summary, you are saying being with me would damage your reputation”, Nero didn’t want to hear Dante confirm his words, so he kept talking instead, this time without bothering to hide the frustration in his voice while blaming that his tone trembled a little, “okay, old man, tell me something: what am I for you?”

Dante gulped softly, before exhaling an incredulous laugh.

“What kind of question is that, kid? You are my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too”, Nero crossed his arms, his eyes scanning Dante’s eyes with intensity, “but what that means for you?”

Dante remained silent for a moment, and for the first time since Kyrie was sent the hospital Nero prayed so that everything didn’t end as it _really_ seemed it was going to end.

“Well...you know…”, Dante’s hesitation made Nero’s stomach sink again, “that we have fun together? Like, a lot of fun. And well, we have a lot of chemistry, and not just in bed, you know.”

“Yeah, we have fun and the sex is good, I get it, but _that_ ’s really all?”

Nero was unable not to interrupt when hearing Dante obviously beating around the bush.

He pressed the guitarist a last time, giving the man a last fucking chance to say something that could compensate all the bullshit he had been saying during the past minutes, that confirmed _that thing_ he wanted the most.

But then, Dante talked.

And what remained of Nero’s hope of that night having a happy ending vanished together with the words that escaped the guitarist’s mouth.

“Isn’t that enough?”

Nero thought that people exaggerated when saying you could actually feel your heart break. Well, he didn’t know if _his_ was doing that at that moment, but what he did know is that never before his chest had felt so painfully tight, to the point that when he snorted in it really hurt. 

He opened his mouth, closed it again, and was forced to avert his eyes to take a deep breath not to keep seeing Dante’s disappointing, irrititating oblivious expression. 

Fuck.

How could he have been so utterly stupid to think that Dante and him were in the same page? 

How could he have been so dumb to assume that Dante also loved him?

Liking him? Yes. Feeling attracted to him? Of course. But loving him? He guessed _that_ was hoping too much. He couldn’t expect Dante to love him as much as he did: Nero had been interested in the guitarist for almost 10 damn years, while Dante had learned about his existence three months ago. And for that same reason, he shouldn’t have expected that Dante suddenly decided to risk his career for him when they have been together for barely two months. In fact, they had already lasted a bunch considering the guitarist had never been interested in serious compromises before.

But of course, he should have been sure about what a ‘serious compromise’ meant for Dante before making any assumptions. 

And definitely, _definitely_ , he should have paid attention to the signals. The whole day Dante had been hesitating, clearly showing he wasn’t sure about the whole ‘let’s-announce-our-relationship’ thing, so he should have known that Dante was forcing himself to do something he actually didn’t want to do for his sake. So, eventually, he had been unable to do it. 

And he was as at fault as Dante was about what was about to happen, he knew that. But still, that didn’t prevent Nero from wanting to punch the guitarist right then and there, for making him look forward something that at the end it would never be. For choosing not risking the comfortable life that had costed him so much to achieve for him. For not loving him even if he was fucking aware that you couldn’t force someone to feel how _you_ wanted them to feel.

Damn, at least he guessed he had to be glad for having discovered how screwed his relationship with Dante was before having confessed, or what was about to happen would be even more difficult and painful to do.

“No, it isn't”, Nero forced himself to look at the guitarist, insulting himself when his voice trembled despite all his attempts to prevent it, “I told you already I was tired of hiding, and you said you were tired of it too, but I guess it’s not like that anymore.”

Nero approached his face more to Dante as this one kept staring at him with a way too imperturbable expression that would have rung all the alarms in Nero’s head if he wasn’t so focused on not causing a scene.

“So, if at the end being with me is too complicated for you, it’s too much for your _reputation_ to handle, then you can begin searching for another boyfriend that doesn’t mind being treated like a fucking pariah.”

When he turned around brusquely to leave, each fiber of his body was craving that Dante said something. That Dante reached for him. That Dante _stopped_ him.

But the guitarist didn’t do anything like that.

And as stubborn as he was, Nero refused to look back while abandoning the room through one of the lateral words, missing that way the expression that Dante had at that moment that was everything but imperturbable anymore.

* * *

When the fireworks announcing the New Year were launched from Dumary, Nero was already in the ferry taking him home. 

After abandoning the ceremony he had stopped briefly by his hotel room. He had rapidly stuffed all his belongings inside his suitcase without any care, and after furiously throwing the pendant Dante gave him as a present on the bed he abandoned the hotel, managing to take the last ferry around 11.15 p.m.

When the people around him began to enthusiastically watch the multicolored lights illuminating the sky, he simply put on the hood of his coat and raised the volume of the song he was listening at the moment, to muffle the happy wishes and congratulations of the people who had actual motives to celebrate that the New Year was there.

He gritted his teeth when the next song that sounded belonged to _Devil May Cry_ and rapidly changed it. And then the next. And the next. Until eventually he gave up and simply activated the radio in his mobile, so that the probability of listening to a song belonging to the group was lower.

At some point he had to turn off the mobile though, after receiving multiple messages and calls from the group because he didn't feel in the mood of facing any of them at the moment.

Of course, he didn’t receive any messages from Dante.

When the ferry reached port it was almost 1 a.m., and half-an-hour later a taxi was leaving him in front of his apartment. A part of him hoped that V and Kyrie were already asleep, so that he could simply sneak in his room and sleep to the next day, even the next fucking week. 

As he was fearing he hoped in vain, since when he was in front of the door music and familiar voices could be heard from inside the apartment. 

After some seconds, he decided to reach for the keys and open the door as if nothing happened, the possibility of him sneaking without the others noticing still in the back of his mind as impossible as he knew it was.

However, when he tried and failed at least three times to enter the key in the keyhole, he heard steps at the other side of the door, followed by an incredulous feminine gasp before the door opened and Kyrie, already dressed in her pajamas, stepped in front of him with an expression full of confusion.

“Nero?”, when hearing her, V raised his face from the book he was reading in the armchair to also look at him with stupor, frowning immediately when seeing the expression Nero was carrying, “what’s wrong? Weren’t you supposed to come back tomorrow--?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Without adding anything else he passed by Kyrie to go straight to his room, dragging his suitcase behind. When the door closed behind him with a slam he didn’t even bother to open his suitcase. He simply removed his boots and jacket and lied on his bed on his side with his arms crossed, shutting his eyes close.

Nero knew he was being kind of a jerk by ignoring his obviously worried friends in such a way, but he was _seriously_ fearing that in case of talking he made something as stupid as breaking down right there and then, and he refused to do so. 

When V and Kyrie didn’t follow him immediately to his room Nero thought for a moment that maybe his friends would respect his wishes and would leave him alone until the next morning. However, when 5 minutes had passed, he heard the door of his room opening softly.

He suppressed a curse, pretending to be asleep when soft steps indicated that Kyrie was getting close to the bed. He didn’t move when the bed bounced a little after Kyrie sat on with her back against the headboard, feeling her body almost touching his back, and neither when he heard new steps approaching and the sound of someone, V, sitting in his old desk chair.

They remained in silence for some seconds, without spelling a word, but when Nero felt Kyrie’s hand settle in his shoulder carefully, just offering a gentle, unexpectedly silent support, the tears that he had been holding back since his conversation with Dante began to run free down his cheeks, so he bit his lower lip to prevent his sobs even if the way his shoulders began to shake fucking betrayed he was crying.

“Well, I guess that wishing you a Happy New Year would not be very suitable.”

Despite how shitty he was feeling, when hearing V’s resigned comment Nero couldn’t help to let out a stuttered laugh that Kyrie joined. He then sniffed in an useless attempt to calm himself, and even if he didn’t change position in the bed he reached with a hand for Kyrie’s one, while keeping his other arm across his chest.

She pressed his hand softly and without adding anything else she changed position to be curling against him from behind. Nero noticed with his eyes closed the small lamp of his desk had been turned on and his chair creaking again, indicating that V had put himself more comfortable to resume his reading while keeping him company. 

The bed bounced a second time, this time more brusquely, and when Nero felt something furry, heavy and warm settle over his legs at the same time that a caw sounded close to his desk, he deduced that V’s pets had joined the therapy support group as well.

Nero smiled then through the tears.

Getting over his break-up with Dante was going to be fucking hard, and it would surely take him a while to recover from it. But at least with V and Kyrie by his side, he was sure that even if now he was far from being okay, eventually he would.

Or, at least, that was what he forced himself to believe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> …..Well, I know most part of you were expecting that something bad happened, though I don’t know if this is what you had in mind ^^U
> 
> Two more chapters to the ending! Or maybe three if I add the epilogue as a separate chapter but anyway we are close to the (happy, I promise) ending, so bear with me a little and don’t kill Dante before reading the next chapter, since it will be from his POV ;)


	22. He deserves more

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be ready for a whole chapter of Dante being a confused (adorable) mess xDDD

Dante exhaled a long, annoyed sigh when his alarm clock, delayed three times already, sounded once again, which probably meant that he would be arriving late to the office an hour and half late at least. 

Snapping a hand against it and suppressing the urge of throwing the device through the damn window, Dante sat up on the bed, rubbing his closed eyes with his hands. Against his will, his eyes shifted to the untouched side of the bed, which had been empty for a week already. 

He would have never imagined that, one day, he would complain about a bed feeling too big and empty for him, but he had been doing so since the kid and him broke up. Or, better said, when _he_ broke up with the kid.

With a curse, Dante forced himself to push away the guilt and discomfort spreading within his chest once again. He stood up, entered the bathroom and snapped opened the water tap of the shower, deciding to take a cold one in order to get his act together. 

It was useless.

That shower, the bed where he slept, every damn nook and cranny of the damn house was invaded with memories of him and Nero. They may have been together for ‘only’ two months, but the imprint the kid had left on him was going to be difficult to erase. 

He exhaled a swallow laugh. Difficult? Better said impossible. Not when Nero had been one of the people he had cared most about. The first person he could say without a doubt he had fallen in love with.

Damn, he didn’t remember the last time he had been so damn productive at playing his guitar: he had been doing it all day just to stop thinking about the emptiness invading him.

 

“ _Let’s announce it._ ”

 

Dante cursed again with his eyes closed while shampooing his hair with even more energy, his mind coming back to that moment.

Fear was the first thing that invaded him after hearing Nero’s proposal, and if he hadn’t been his usual dumb self _that_ should be the feeling that should have predominated, instead of the relief and enthusiasm that followed after the kid began to speak aloud the same things he had been thinking for a while. 

Thankfully his self-control resulted to be better than he thought. He had been honestly tempted to fuck Nero right there and then, possesively wanting that the damn place new that the kid was _his_ as much aware as he was that Nero didn’t belong to anyone. And that in case of the kid deciding to do so, definitely it shouldn’t be to him. 

 

_“Are you having second thoughts about this?”_

 

Snapping close the water tap again Dante exited the shower to dry himself brusquely with a towel, his teeth gritted tightly in self-disgust.

Yeah, of course he had been, and not just for the announcement.

He had been having doubts practically since their relationship began, and _that_ should have been the moment in telling Nero about it. In confessing all those things that had always been there, eating him little by little. But when seeing the hesitant look in Nero’s eyes, he had only been able to answer with a half-truth in order to convince not just the kid but also himself, because answering with the truth could cause that Nero finally realized what Dante had been aware all that time. And even if Dante knew that that was the correct thing to do for the kid’s sake, eventually he was too coward, too _selfish_ to do it

He had always had the bad habit of delaying the things he didn’t want to face at their maximum, and even if in more than one occasion he had been in trouble for that neglecting attitude, with more or less effort and sometimes sleepless nights he had always managed to solve the situation in all the cases...

 

“ _No, love. I’m afraid that Cupid hasn’t stopped at my door yet._ ”

 

...up till that moment.

Because of course, the moment in which that technique of delaying things to the last minute had to come back biting at him, it was when it mattered the most. 

Damn, it would have been way easier that Nero had shouted at him at that moment. Or insulted him. Hell, even punch him. Dante knew he deserved it. But as angry as Nero had obviously been, the fact that discouragement and disappointment won over the kid’s fury had hurt more than he was expecting.

 

_“What am I for you?”_

 

Dante leaned both of his hands on the bathroom sink, observing his reflexion in the mirror: his beard was even more scruffier than usual, there were bags under his eyes, and even the smile he tried to force was one of the more strained he had ever showed.

What was Nero for him? No, what _had_ Nero _been_ for him?:

Without a doubt, the best thing it had ever happened to him. The best thing it’d _ever_ happen to him, he risked to say. 

But as it usually happened, those didn’t last forever. Or in this case, for Nero’s sake, it _shouldn’t_ last forever. And for that reason Dante would bite the bullet and would devote all his efforts to make their new situation work as soon as possible.

It would probably take them a little to be able to interact as if nothing happened. Hell, it was hurting already thinking how it would be to meet Nero again, to be in the damn same room than him without being able to kiss him, to see the kid’s usual affectionate, fond looks turned into resentment, hate even. But he would get used to it, and what it truly mattered: he was sure Nero would too. 

He was tougher than him after all, although that wasn’t very difficult, he thought self-mockingly.

Dante was in the process of shaving, in order to look half-presentable to face the hard day he had ahead, when his mobile sounded. He came back to his bedroom with half of his face covered in shaving foam, insulting himself internally for the disappointment that briefly invaded him when realizing it wasn’t Nero’s ringtone but the generic one. Of course that the kid wasn’t going to call him. In fact, he would be lucky if the boy was willing to ever talk to him that day, thing that he really doubted. 

When seeing Morrison’s name on the screen Dante exhaled a relieved sigh, since the probabilities of being yelled at or interrogated about his discussion with Nero were scarce if the old man was the one calling. Although the truth was that he shouldn’t complain too much. He had been rather lucky that the group hadn’t insisted too much during the week after learning about their fight. Not that he could have covered it up anyway, with the way Nero abandoned Dumary without any warning. At least thanks to Nico, who had became friends with Kyrie since Christmas, they had learned that Nero had arrived home safe and sound, but all the others attempts of talking to the kid had been useless, and eventually Morrison recommended to stop intruding in a matter that was for Dante and Nero to fix on their own.

“I’m on my way, old man”, Dante lied, taking his mobile to the bathroom to finish shaving, “sorry, I didn’t hear the alarm clock.”

“ _Yes, I had figured it ou_ t”, Dante frowned when hearing Morrison clear his throat, the man sounding a little nervous next, “ _so, I presume you are still at home?_ ”

Dante blinked.

“Yeah”, he realized too late he had said a second ago that he was on his way to the office, “well, I mean, I’m _about_ to leave so it counts as if I was on my way. Why?”

 

**_DING DONG!_ **

**_DING DONG!_ **

**_DING DONG!_ **

 

Dante’s eyes opened wide in stupor when hearing the doorbell being smashed, followed by the sound of the door of _his_ house being opened and also by several voices that caused him to feel cold sweet invading him.

 

“Nico, dear, I still have the spare key, you didn’t need to call--”

“I don’t fucking care: where is him?”

“Nico, hon, you promised me I could talk to him first.”

“Babe, Lu, chill out! We’ve come to talk to him, not killing him.”

“Ladies, please, you promised me you would behave and--”

“Dad, _sssh_! You have done your job already: now it’s our turn.”

“I told you it was a bad idea to listen to them, Morrison. Now if my brother dies, his death will be on you.”

“Then don’t you think you should stop smiling?”

 

At that moment two set of resolved steps sounded close the stairs, one of them belonging to someone wearing boots while the other used high heels. 

Dante didn’t even have to assimilate that Morrison had framed him and that Trish had betrayed his trust by using the spare key he didn’t even remember she still had, since at that moment he saw an enraged Nico and an equally furious Lucia appearing on the top of the stairs.

His first not-very-clever impulse was to rapidly step inside his room, close the door, and put the bolt on it, mere seconds before the women threw themselves at it with the clear intention of open it, making it rattle for the way they were forcibly knocking and trying to forcibly enter.

“Don’t you dear to run away, you coward!”, Lucia exclaimed from the other side.

“S-Sorry, love, but I’m half-naked.”

By then the others had caught up as well and Dante realized his excuse had been super poor when _everyone_ snorted at the other side of the door.

“Really, brother?”, he could perfectly imagine the deadpanned expression of Vergil at the other side, “at this point we would end sooner by saying who has _not_ seen you half-naked.”

He was about to protest against Vergil’s statement even if it was pretty accurate when Nico talked with a serious threatening tone that made him gulp.

“Dude, I’m breaking this door if you don’t open it.”

“He will do it, Dante”, Lady intervenes with a convinced tone, “she is using her serious-and-sexy-as-fuck tone.”

“Lady, not the time.”

“Okay, babe.”

“Dante~”, the fact that Patty’s voice sounded even sweeter than usual made Dante be even more afraid of the young woman, “come on, be a good boy and open the door: we only want to talk~.”

Dante was seriously considering the possibility of escaping through the bedroom window (forgetting he was in the 30th floor for a moment) when Trish’s commanding tone sounded over the others.

“Everyone, calm down _right now_ ”, Dante was about to thank the woman, the only one with a minimum of common sense at the moment, when she addressed him, “and you, Dante, if you don’t join us in the living room in two minutes I will come here myself to drag you there, understood _dear_?”

Dante remembered very well what that ‘dear’ spelled in such a tone meant, so he proceeded to dress himself in time record, forgetting completely by then that, supposedly, he had the right of demanding everyone to leave since they were invading his home without permission, since his survival instinct was loudly shouting him to obey.

Not daring to test his luck, he took the ‘two minutes’ warning to the letter, which meant that he barely had time to finish drying himself, dress with his jeans and a wrinkled shirt that he put on like a t-shirt to save time (it would have been easier to use a t-shirt but most part of them were on the laundry), and without even putting his shoes on he climbed down the stairs. Needless to say, the action of properly shaving had to be postponed.

When reaching the [ living room ](https://s3.amazonaws.com/zumpermedia/blog/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2018-05-16-at-11.04.33-AM.png) Dante immediately deduced that he had to sit on the sofa, since everyone was half-circling it as if they were a tribunal waiting for the suspect to take the stand. Well, everyone but Lady, who had taken the liberty of snatching some food without permission and was preparing herself a sandwich, Vergil, who was sitting on the armchair apparently busy in reading a magazine even if Dante was sure his brother’s attention was with the other’s, and Morrison, who was sitting in one of the chairs of the living room table with an elbow leaning on the table, looking apologetically at him, as if he was sorry for having participated in the crazy assault.

“Very well.”

Trish, situated in the middle of the group, was the first one to speak while crossing her arms. 

“Now that we _all_ have calmed down...”, she looked at Dante and signaled towards the sofa with her head, “...please, Dante, sit down.”

Dante exhaled a long resigned sigh and fulfilled Trish’s petition, sitting on the sofa with his legs slightly separated so that his hands hanged between them. He began to rub them while looking at everyone. Trish was definitely the most calmed one, since Lucia, Nico and Patty looked about to jump at him at any moment, which was surely the motive why the drums player was the one in leading the conversation, talking with a softer tone than before.

“Listen, Dante, under normal circumstances we wouldn’t intrude in your relationship with Nero--”, she rectified herself, almost immediately, “or well, at least I can assure you that _I_ wouldn’t do it. But something has happened that, I’m afraid, affects the whole group and consequently--”

No one was expecting it when Nico suddenly approached the living room table and snapped a paper against it, with so much emphasis that Dante thought that the crystal table was going to break.

“He has resigned.”

Dante missed the way Trish reproached Nico for being so brusque, his attention devoted to reach for the piece of paper to read it. 

His eyes scanned the resignation letter, recognizing the boy’s signature at the end of it. When seeing the vocabulary used and the general formality of the document Dante couldn’t help to wonder if Nero had had help to write it. He answered himself automatically that probably his poet friend had something to do with it.

Contradictory feelings invaded him at that moment, but none of them was the one it _should_ be, which clearly proved that breaking up with Nero had been the correct choice. There was a limit to how selfish he could be, and he had already been about to cross it.

“The letter is dated from some days ago”, Trish continued, “because of the New Year’s holidays we did not get it until today.”

“Which means that Nero wrote it practically after your fight”, Patty intervened as Dante kept looking calmly at them.

“ _And_ which means that it wasn’t a ‘simple discussion’ as you told us”, Nico took the floor, snorting loudly, “because like hell if Nero would abandon the group _just_ for a fight! He loves it too much for it!”

“So we are all ears, babe”, Lucia finished, settling her hands on her hips, “what did exactly happen between Nero and you?”

Lady agreed with her companions, nodding effusively from the kitchen counter, her mouth too full to properly speak. Morrison limited himself with sighing, even if his eyes were looking at him with curiosity, and Vergil was still reading, nothing in his posture betraying that he was probably waiting for his answer as eagerly the others, if not more.

Dante took a deep breath, thought for a moment about the best way to put it into words so that the others believed him, and began to talk.

“Okay, you’re right when saying that it wasn’t a simple discussion”, he got ready for what was coming, “we broke up.”

The faces that all the ladies showed were the ones that Dante had been expecting, so he raised his hands conciliatorily, indicating them that way to let him continue.

It was to no avail.

All of them began to talk at the same time, although the question that made Dante suppress a guilty gulp was Nico’s one, since she asked it with a expression that, angry until then, had turned into one of utter confusion and sincere sadness.

“But...But I don’t understand. You were so happy together. Damn, you made a super great couple. It was for the announcement stuff?”

Dante managed to keep his face more or less imperturbable while opening his mouth to speak.

Again, he never got to do it, but this time the one in interrupting him wasn’t one of the women, but Vergill.

 

“No. He pushed the boy away on purpose.”

 

Dante’s neck actually cracked painfully for the way he turned it to look at his brother lying against the armchair. 

While a confused silence reigned in the room, Dante suppressed a nervous gulp, managing to bark an incredulous laugh.

“What the hell are you saying, Vergil?”, Dante crossed his arms, the defensive gesture contrasting with the nonchalance he wanted to show while trying once and for all to express the argument he had practiced so much, “Nico wasn’t wrong. Maybe it wasn’t just for the announcement, but because of it we discussed about the future development of our relationship, and since we didn’t reach a mutual agreement we simply decided--”

“Brother, if you want to have a tiny opportunity that we believe you, you should practice your speeches better”, Vergil closed the magazine, left it to the armchair, and threw a piercing, inquisitive glance at him, “‘development of our relationship’? ‘Mutual agreement’? Please, Dante, you could not sound less like yourself even if you tried.”

This time, Dante was too slow to remove the astonishment from his face, causing that everyone in the room turned to look at him with stupor.

“Son”, Morrison was the one in speaking for the first time since the group invaded his apartment, “is Vergil right?”

Dante forced a surprised chuckle in order to show that Vergil’s words had no foundation, that his brother couldn’t be more wrong. 

He then opened his mouth to keep defending his posture, to keep convincing the others that the fact that a relationship was going well didn’t mean it had to last forever, and that even if Nero and him had been okay together they had discovered they were better on their own. 

But just when the first word was going to leave his mouth, he realized that it would be useless: his bastard of a brother had already put everyone in alert, and no matter what a good actor he could be sometimes , this time it wasn’t going to play out.

So he cursed, his lopsided smile still in place but now showing defeat while he leaned back against the sofa in order to exhale a deep, long breath.

“Yeah”, he averted his eyes, getting lost in his thoughts, “yeah, he is.”

In the silence than followed no one said anything at first, although eventually it was Lady the one who broke the silence.

“Why?”

Dante sighed again, sitting straight again to answer with a serious tone that perfectly matched his expression.

“Because he deserves more, _way more_ , than what I can offer.”

He had the intention of continuing but, for the third time, he was interrupted when Trish exhaled a gasp of realization, and this time he unconsciously clenched his jaw with annoyance.

“That _witch_ ”, Trish looked at Dante with an angry expression that wasn’t actually directed to him, “did she tell you something?”

The fact that she had used that term allowed everyone to understand who she was referring to.

“Hey, you right! Nevan and him were in the backstage for almost 5 minutes alone!”, Nico almost shouted. 

“Fuck, then it’s obvious that Nevan tricked him in some way so that he and Nero broke up”, Lady exclaimed, pointing at Dante with her sandwich too effusively, making pieces of lettuce and tomato come flying from it, “maybe she even bribed the hosts so that you had to answer that question!“

“Oh, damn, so that bitch was also there?”, Lucia cursed to herself, looking at Dante then suspiciously, “please, tell me you haven’t been influenced by her or--”

This time the glassed table was about to break for real when Dante snapped a hand against it, making everyone jump startled and shut immediately. The only one who didn’t look surprised by his reaction was Vergil who was simply observing the scene in silence.

“Yes, Nevan was there”, Dante took the floor, talking with a fake calm tone that let everyone know he didn’t feel that way at all, “and yes, she told me something about Nero. But what she told me wasn’t the reason why I broke up with him. Not the only reason at least.”

Trish frowned, but before she could ask the obvious question Dante continued.

“She told me that Nero had been offered a really good offer in the Art Department of the Filming Studio where we’ve collaborated more than once. An offer that is way, _way_ better than the one we did to him, and that would allow him to make the most of his talent”, he correctly read Trish’s face and continued, “and yes, I verified that Nevan was telling the truth. I had time to call Hank, who confirmed me he had contacted Nero and that the kid was in fact considering the possibility of accepting it.”

“But he didn’t tell us anything…”, Nico began, but Dante hadn’t finished, and when he talked, now frustration was evident in his voice. 

“No, he didn’t. He didn’t tell us a damn thing because he is the kind of idiot that sticks with the ones he cares about until the end, even if that means wasting better opportunities.”

Nico and Patty looked rather lost, but an expression of understanding had appeared in the older women faces. However, it was Morrison the one who intervened.

“And you think that he was doing the same with you.”

“Yes”, Dante said without hesitation, standing up to be at the same level than the rest when talking with determination, “yes, he was. He has his whole damn life ahead of him and he was wasting it with me, _because_ of me. He wasn’t just letting opportunities pass, but also was willing to be in the damn spotlight when it’s evident he hates it. And why? Just because I can’t even offer him a fucking normal relationship. He--”, he exhaled a sigh, shaking his head while crossing his arms again in front of his chest, “shit, he is _too good_ for me. And the last thing he deserves is to turn his life upside down for a damn old man who doubles his age and who’ll surely screw everything up at the end, because that’s what I _always_ do.”

Dante was definitely expecting the silence that followed his speech, that this time he was sure it sounded like himself, he couldn’t help to think self-mockingly.

What he wasn’t expecting was that Vergil stood up at that moment, no emotion betraying his imperturbable face while approaching him until stopping in front of him.

And definitely, he didn’t foresee the way his brother smacked the back of his head with force as an unanimous resigned sigh traversed by the group.

“Well, it has just been confirmed”, Vergil said with eternal patience, “my brother is the biggest fool who has ever stepped on Earth.”

Dante, eye-wided and with his mouth half-opened in stupor, reached back to rub the back of his head while frowning, utterly offended for his brother’s words when he was pretty damn sure his reasoning was sounding.

“H-Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“On Earth?”, Lady barked a laugh, surprising Dante by taking Vergil’s place in front of him to point between his eyes with an accusing finger, causing him to end slightly cross-eyed because of the movement, “Vergil, you have fallen short: he is the most gigantic idiot of the _Universe_.”

“Correction accepted”, Vergil conceded while Lucia, Nico and Patty looked close to facepalm. The only one who didn’t look exasperated (because even Morrison was shaking his head with resignation) was Trish, who was smiling at him with patience.

“Dante, you know that I always try to back you up, but I have to agree with them: this time you outdid yourself.”

“Yes, you silly”, Patty exclaimed, and Dante’s mouth fell even more opened when seeing that the young woman’s eyes looked brighter than usual, “gosh, if you love Nero and Nero loves you back there shouldn’t be anything else to discuss! There was zero motive to break up with him!”

“‘Zero motive’? Fuck, I have just explained that I did what I did because--”, Dante interrupted himself, something about what Patty said making his eyes open even wider, “wait, what do you mean that Nero loves me?”

Dante was rather used to his companions occasionally looking at him as if he was dumb, but he was pretty sure that it was the first time that _absolutely everyone_ had done it at the same time.

“Wait, so you hadn’t _noticed_?”, Lucia exclaimed in a more high-pitched tone that Dante knew it meant that the woman could hit him at any moment.

His instinct made him hide behind Vergil who was busy rubbing his temple, as if he didn’t believe how idiot he could be.

“But how can you be sure about that?”, Dante insisted, his heart beating faster at that moment, “I mean, he is not even 30! The fact that we are--we _were_ dating doesn’t mean he was _that_ serious about it!”

“Uhm, hello? The fact that at his age you fucked with everything that moved doesn’t mean that he wants to do the same!”, Lady exclaimed, and for once Trish didn’t even complain about her bad language. In fact she was nodding, clearly agreeing with her. 

“Okay, I admit that I may have been a little crazy back then--”

“I think that ‘manwhore’ was the adjective you were looking for, brother.”

Dante glared at Vergil but since the man was ‘kind’ enough to keep playing shield for him, he accepted the appellative. 

“But even if Nero is obviously more serious than that, it doesn’t mean that it enters his plans to be with me forever--Patty, _please_ ”, Dante begged towards the young woman, distracted when this one exhaled an unconscious ‘ _Awww~_ ’ while placing a hand against her chest, “I mean, he should have the chance of...I don’t know, meet with other people? Instead of having to stick with me from now on.”

“Is that what you really want, Dante?”, Morrison intervened, standing up from the chair to join the rest while Dante snorted when hearing the question.

“Well, of course I _don’t_ , old man”, Dante snapped, unable to deny what was evident, “but he _should_ be able to do it. As I’ve said he has the whole life in front of him and--”

“--and he decided to choose you”, Nico completed, talking for the first time in quite a while with a serious tone that she didn’t use often, "dude, don’t you realize that he has been liking you for a long time? Ever since he was a teenager he has liked you. And he would kill me if he heard me say it, but I’m sure you are the man of his life. Come on, how can you even doubt if he loves you or not? Man, it’s evident he does.”

Dante gulped, feeling his heart beating even faster than before when hearing Nico’s explanation, unable not to want it to be true.

“And I’m not trying to make you feel worse, dear...”, Trish offered him a light apologetic smile, “...but the fact that he abandoned the group probably means you broke his heart.”

The pang of guilt that assaulted Dante was way bigger than when he remembered how Nero looked the last time they saw each other. 

At that moment he had told himself that the best for Nero in the long term was to force a breakup, as much as he had hated to play the jerk by saying all those excuses. It had hurt like a bitch to do something that was hurting Nero, but it would be just in the short term. He couldn’t let the kid expose himself to the world where they lived when they were being together for such a short time, because if things went wrong, if he fucked their relationship up, Nero would still have to pay for it even after splitting up. The harm would remain for a while, and Dante didn’t want that. He didn’t trust himself enough to guarantee that he wouldn’t be ruining the kid’s life for his mistakes. 

And well, he honestly wasn’t expecting that Nero actually abandoned the group. However, _that_ could simply confirm his theory of Nero being there mainly for him, and once his ties with him were gone Nero was finally free to do other things and accept other offers that interested him more.

But if the others were right and Nero’s feelings for him ran as deep as his own...shit, maybe he had screwed everything up even sooner than he had anticipated. Up till then the thought of Nero actually being in love with him hadn’t crossed his mind, specially considering the shocked face the kid had made when he _almost_ confessed his feelings that night after the press conference, but what if he had read that wrong as well? 

Shit. 

Now he was beginning to think that Lady was falling short when saying he was the biggest idiot of the Universe.

“Well, it seems you finally get it”, Lady patted his shoulder and surprised him by situating behind him to push him towards the door, “come on, chop-chop: time to fix the mess.”

“Hey, hey, but wait a minute!”, Dante planted his feet firmly on the ground, which made Lady begin to huff for the effort, which encouraged Patty to join her efforts of moving him without success, “the fact that he _may_ love me--”

“ _HE DOES!_ ”

“--doesn’t change anything!”

When hearing him Lady and Patted stopped pushing even if they remained behind him. Dante exhaled a nervous laugh and scratched the the back of his head, looking at Trish.

“What if I still screw it up? I did it with you”, his eyes shifted to Lucia, “and with you. You both were right when saying I’m an awful boyfriend material. What if I’m simply not cut for this kind of stuff and--?”

When both Trish and Lucia approached him, Dante automatically flinched waiting for the hit to come, so he was surprise when instead of that Trish placed her hand on his shoulder softly as Lucia did the same in his arm.

“Dante, you didn’t screw anything up with us”, Lucia said firmly, “at least in our case, we broke up because at some point we realized we worked better as _simple_ friends. That’s all.”

“I agree”, Trish smiled at him, “none of us were looking for something serious. And although it’s evident you have your flaws, your good points _greatly_ exceed your bad ones.”

Dante opened his mouth but this time it was Lady the one who stopped him from talking, ruffling his head violently from behind.

“They do, you idiot. Jeez, do we really have to remind you how much you helped _all_ of us?”

Dante snorted, crossing his arms while averting his eyes to the side.

“Come on: that was just part of my masterplan to make you join the group, don’t you see it?”

“We all know that’s not true, silly”, Patty said sweetly while enclosing an arm around his own.

“We do”, Morrison said, nodding with determination, “besides, it’s crystal clear that in case of being mastermind in this group, your brother is the best candidate.”

For the first time in that week, Dante found himself laughing when hearing Morrison’s comment, and the way Vergil looked at him with an arrogant smirk that showed he approved their agent’s statement.

“And _even_ in case you screwed it up, it’s not the end of the world!”, Nico intervened, placing her hands on her hips while finally talking with her animated tone, “you two can fight, or argue, or have your ups and downs, _but_ you can always fix them.”

“Not to mention that the fact that a relationship didn’t work once with one person doesn’t mean the next is devoted to fail”, Trish talked again, pressing Dante’s shoulder softly while smiling with affection, “at least in my case, I can positively say that no matter how unfortunate my first relationship was: being with you was one of the craziest and funniest experiences of my life”, the drums player separated from him at that moment to give a step backwards, casually ending next to Morrison who was observing her out of the corner of his eye, “and definitely, the fact that we eventually split up won’t stop me if the opportunity of being with someone else presents again.”

Dante couldn’t help to smile with amusement when Trish’s casual comment made Morrison gulp softly while averting his eyes with a brief throat clearing, causing Patty to let out a very subtle giggle next to him.

He exhaled then a long sigh, seeing the logic in the other’s arguments, but there was something else that still bugged him…

“And regarding Nero deserving more…”

Dante looked at Vergil when this one talked, even if he shouldn’t be surprised of his twin managing to read his thoughts.

“...perhaps you are right. As you said, he has a lifetime ahead of him, and that is plenty of time so that he was able to find happiness elsewhere, with someone whose circumstances were more mundane and less complicated”, Vergil crossed his arms as well, mimicking Dante’s posture without noticing, “but when you are in a relationship, there are certain matters that you cannot decide on your own, since you are not alone anymore. And to decide if your significant one deserves more than what you can offer is one of them. They should be the ones in making the call of leaving or staying, not us. Because doing it in another way, trying to push them away even if it’s for their sake…”

Vergil stopped for a moment, averted his eyes to the side as if getting lost in his thoughts, and looked at him again.

“Doing _that_ will only cause both of you pain. A pain that could have been avoided just by accepting that, for a reason that perhaps you never get to comprehend at its fullest or even accept, someone out there considers you precious enough to be worthy of their affection, of their support. And at that point, the only thing you can do is to correspond them with no reservations, and show them that their hopes and trust in you won’t go to waste.”

Dante didn’t realize he (and everyone) had been holding their breaths while staring at Vergil in disbelief until he heard a sob and realized Patty was crying next to him.

“Oh my god, Vergil, that was sooo beautiful~”

The bassist clicked his tongue loudly as the others agreed with Patty.

“The arguments I exposed were born from pure common sense: there was nothing particularly beautiful about them.”

Dante began to laugh when hearing his brother’s sulky answer, causing this one to glare at him.

“Well, brother, maybe you should replace the ladies in writing the lyrics: it’s evident there’s a poet inside you”, he half-closed his eyes as if pretending to be confused, “but just out of curiosity: are you sure you were talking about me and Nero and not about Say--?”

“ _Dante…_ ”

While the others laughed Dante was ready to avoid Vergil’s new hit to hug him, making his brother tense (and Patty to cry even more).

“Thanks, brother”, Dante said with sincerity, separating almost immediately to look at the others alternatively, “and also everyone. I know I screwed up…”, he laughed with certain embarrassment with the generic, playful ‘ _Yes, you did_ ’ that followed his words “...but I’ll make sure to remember your advices.”

Vergil snorted while everyone took turns in wishing him luck.

“You better do. Because by basing on the catastrophic result you have obtained after using your head, it is evident you shouldn’t do it again. And now...”, Vergil signaled the door with a movement of his head, smirking teasingly at him, “...make sure to bring our handyman back. I don’t want to waste my time getting used to a new one that will surely be less competent.”

Dante laughed again and nodded with renewed determination before running back to his room in order to put his shoes on and recover the pendant that he found in their hotel bed, probably after Nero broke it in the anger of the moment. He also ran out of his apartment while putting his leather jacket on as Morrison, Vergil and Trish convinced the others that it was forbidden for them to go witness the reconciliation.

As he rode down the elevator in direction of the garage to pick his motorbike, he could feel his heart hammering in his chest, but despite the nervousness he was feeling there was something he knew for sure.

He loved Nero and he was bringing him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JUST ONE CHAPTER SO THAT THESE IDIOTAS HAVE THEIR HAPPY ENDING! ^^


	23. Any proper rock band...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And just in time for Halloween...FINAL CHAPTER!! :D

Dante had the feeling that the probabilities of Nero refusing to let him enter his apartment were rather high, so he decided to go for the easy trick of pretending to be the postman so that another apartment opened the street door of the building.

It still took him a couple of attempts until an old-lady was kind enough to open it, and when being finally inside Dante felt nervousness settling, his heart beating faster with every step he climbed up. In fact, he remained with his hand raised in the air in front of Nero’s door for several seconds, in an uncompleted knocking gesture. He reviewed for twentieth time what he had to say and how he had to say it, aware that nerves got the best of him and that the probabilities of him worsening the situation even more with a poor choice of words were pretty high.

However, when realizing he was beginning to mix sentences of the supposedly perfect speech in his head, he decided that it was a little too late to pretend he actually had an idea about what he was going to tell Nero. So, he took a deep breath with his eyes closed, and after opening them again he knocked a couple of times, his heart managing to race a little faster when hearing some steps approaching from the other side.

Dante realized at the last second that Nero could look through the peephole and see him, so he rapidly snapped a hand against it to prevent such a thing from happening. After some seconds a suspicious ‘ _Who is it?_ ’ sounded at the other side, and Dante didn’t know if he felt relieved or more nervous when the voice that talked didn’t belong to Nero but to V.

He suppressed a curse, rapidly evaluating his options before talking with a voice that, he hoped, sounded different enough from his own.

“From the gas company, can you please open?”, he eventually said, in a last moment inspiration when remembering that Nero had commented some time ago that they were still having some problems with the company.

For the way Nero’s poet friend sighed with impatience while (finally!) opening the door, it seemed that it had been a good idea to play that card…

“If this is about those unpaid bills _again_ , we have told you several times that the matter needs to be solved by the landlord and not by us--”

...or maybe not, since Dante wondered at that moment if having played that impersonation trick had been such a good idea, because the way V’s expression, initially showing annoyance and then stupor, changed into a cold, imperturbable mask made a shiver travel down his spine.

“He does not want to see you.”

Up till that moment, Dante had never understood why Nero had said in a couple of occasions that V was a person he didn’t want to have as an enemy, since during his interactions with the poet the man had always been rather calm, polite and displaying an excess of sarcasm at most.

Now, when detecting the undeniable threat hidden behind V’s straightforward but still smooth words, Dante understood why the poet and Vergil got along: those two shared the same vibe of being able to destroy whoever that dared to hurt the people important to them without even blinking or losing that apparent serenity.

And unfortunately for him, that was exactly what he had done to Nero, which meant that he was a dead man unless he convinced V that he was there to fix things.

“Yeah, figured it out”, Dante sighed, offering V an apologetic look, “I kind of messed it up.”

The dangerous grin that appeared in V’s face made Dante have difficulties in keeping looking at the man’s green eyes, which were shining in a way that made him remember a viper about to attack his prey.

“Definitely you did. So, if you ever cared for Nero as he still wants to believe you did, you will do now what is best for him and disappear from his life before causing more harm. Understood?”

When V was beginning to close the door Dante acted in an impulse, snapping his arm against it to prevent V from completing the action.

“Move”, V hissed, clearly annoyed for not having enough strength to overpower him.

Dante shook his head, stubbornly fixing his eyes on V because as much as he understood (and deeply admired) the poet’s behavior to protect Nero, he wasn’t leaving that place without fixing things with the kid. Or, if that wasn’t possible anymore, without properly apologizing.

“Can’t do that, kid”, Dante felt V trying to close the door, but at least in terms of physical strength he clearly surpassed the poet, which allowed him to keep it half-opened with practically no effort, “I need to talk to him.”

Apparently, he had used the wrong words for the way V’s eyes half-closed even more menacingly.

“You still don’t get it, do you?”, V’s tone gained harshness, “this is not about what _you_ need but about what _he_ deserves, and definitely he deserves more than investing his time in someone unable to make compromises. Someone who allows Nero to leave like that without even fighting to keep him.”

Dante gulped, hesitating for a moment because V had mentioned the same thing he had been thinking for a while. 

But he couldn’t let his insecurities win. Not this time. As Vergil had said, relationships were, normally, a thing to resolve between two people, which meant that he needed to talk to Nero even if that meant fighting V.

“I know I could have done it better. But again, that’s something I have to discuss with Nero, not with you, V. So I’m sorry, but I’m entering now.”

Deducing that V would put more effort into closing the door, Dante used some extra strength to break inside the house. His deduction was wrong, since instead of trying to stop him from entering V took a couple of steps backwards so that Dante’s extra impulse made him stumble and fall on his knees with a surprised gasp. 

Dante had barely time to hear V clasping his fingers when an animalistic growl sounded in the room and suddenly his body was forced flat on the floor, due to a heavy four-legged weight pressing against his back.

“What the-- _ouch_!”

Dante’s protest evolved in a painful exclamation when the poet’s panther’s mouth enclosed threateningly around the top of his head, fortunately without actually biting but with enough force to make him be afraid of the animal’s sharp fangs, which were able to break his skull in case V decided to order so.

“If I were you I wouldn’t move much: Shadow can be a little rough when he is hungry”, V said in a conversational tone while reaching for his mobile inside his dark trousers, “and now, as I’ve said, maybe you would like to leave before I call the police for having sneaked in the apartment uninvited.”

Dante, who was still letting out several rapid ‘ouch-ouch-ouch’ after Griffon decided to join the party and landed next to him to peck at him, realized that V was typing on his phone, and his doubts about the poet being bluffing vanished when V approached his phone to his ear with a scarily serious expression.

The guitarist understood that the possibilities of him dying eaten by a damn panther (while being tortured by that bird’s insanely pointed beak) or of him being arrested by the police for invading someone else’s house were beginning to be excessively high. However, as epic as a titular like ‘ _Guitarist of Devil May Cry loses his life eaten by a panther_ ’ sounded, like hell if he was going to simply leave without putting up a decent fight...

 

“V, what the hell are your pets doing? I’m hearing them from here--”

 

Dante, who was waiting for the appropriate moment to stand up to make that giant cat lose balance, felt his heart stop when hearing that familiar voice coming from the corridor. 

He raised his face from the floor at the exact moment in which Nero left the corridor and entered the living room, still dressed in his pajama pants and a short sleeved white t-shirt.

Well, that wasn’t the scenario Dante had in mind when meeting Nero again, but well, Dante was used to improvise so, at that moment, he did the only thing he could do, which was to offer the rather shocked Nero an hesitant lopsided smile, wave his hand from the floor and speak with the most normal tone he could come up with.

“Hey, kid. It’s been a while.”

This time, the reaction he obtained from Nero was the one he had been expecting. 

* * *

Even if the previous night Nero had stayed up till late watching TV shows one after another in an attempt to keep his mind busy, his biological clock decided to wake him up that morning at exactly 7 a.m nevertheless. 

He lazily removed the covers from him, stood up from the bed, and still in a half-sleepy daze he began to get dressed in order to go to the _Devil May Cry_ office as usual, since the brief holidays week for New Years’ Eve was over.

The realization of him not working there anymore felt like a slap in the face, which made him stop when he had already put his jeans on and was in the process of choosing a t-shirt. While cursing and insulting himself he undressed again, brusquely putting his pajama on again to drop on the bed on his side with his arms crossed over his chest, which felt now tighter.

At the moment leaving the group had looked the most logical thing to do. In fact, he had felt extremely relieved when he sent his resignation letter, because the perspective of working with Dante, of _daily_ seeing Dante after what happened between them, was something he wanted to avoid at any cost. 

He had always sucked at hiding how he felt. The fact that he had only managed to keep his crush for Dante in secret for just some weeks proved it, so it was completely impossible for him to pretend to have a cordial relationship with the guitarist. Not when half of the times that the guitarist’s stupid face came to his mind he felt like going to see the man just the punch him, while during the other half Nero wanted to punch _himself_ for having expected so much of someone who, in reality, was in his perfect right of not harboring the same feelings, neither to risk exposing himself when it was true that they had been together for too little. 

During that week he had had the temptation of calling Dante several times, decision that was approved by Kyrie, who insisted they needed to talk again, but advised against by V, who cuttingly said he shouldn’t waste a single second longer with that overgrown fool, and Louis, with whom Nero had also talked via phone and who effusively said that he planned to tear off all the posters he had from Dante for being such a jerk. 

Eventually, Nero decided to go with the guys’ advice, because if Dante’s main worry had only been the announcement of their relationship, the guitarist would have tried to contact him after the fight, or to talk about it. But the fact that Dante hadn’t even bothered to check on him, being Nico and the others the ones in doing it instead, proved that it had been an excuse to put an end to a relationship that was probably turning too serious for his liking. 

So, as much as it hurt and as little ready as he felt to accept that truth, Nero knew that the only chance he had to begin to heal was to get over Dante as soon as possible, and stopping thinking about him was the first step. 

But of course, saying it was easier than putting it into practice, or otherwise Nero wouldn’t have spent the whole week at home, waiting for a call or a damn visit, neither the following 4 hours tossing and turning in bed until he finally gave up with frustration and stood up feeling even more tired than when he had tried to go to sleep again. Damn, he was contacting Hank that morning without fail to accept his proposal, because there was no way he spent another fucking day behaving like a damn damsel in distress who still longed for a cretin who didn’t even bother to give him a fucking call.

Nero had barely reached for his jeans again when a recognizable loud growl followed by a thump coming from the living room startled him, making him abandon his room with a frown, while asking V about what the hell was going on.

Definitely, the sight that welcomed him in the living room, with _Dante_ being apparently attacked by Shadow and Griffon as V stood next to him looking completely unbothered, was the last he could have ever expected, which surely justified his rather loud reaction.

“What the _FUCK_ is going on here?!”

“Well, I simply wanted to talk.”

“And I simply encouraged him to leave not to bother you ever again.”

Nero looked at both Dante and V alternatively, honestly not knowing from where to begin, when at that moment another set of steps was heard outside and Kyrie appeared on the frame while carrying a couple of bags.

“Guys, what have I told you about letting the door open? Jeez, we are wasting the heat--”, at that moment the woman finally noticed Dante on the floor, which provoked her to open her eyes wide while exhaling a high-pitched shout of surprise, “w-w-what is going on here?!”

“That’s what I’d like to know!”, Nero snapped with exasperation as Kyrie looked completely lost, and when seeing V opening his mouth to surely repeat his explanation with an impatient tone he signaled at Shadow, who still had his mouth wrapped around Dante’s head, “could you please call your pets back? And who the hell are you calling?”

“The police.”

“The polic--fuck, hang up _right now_!”

“Are you sure? If we tell them that the guitarist of _Devil May Cry_ has broken inside I’m sure you could obtain a good sum of money from him.”

“V, hang up _RIGHT NOW_.”

The poet clicked his tongue with annoyance while fortunately obeying, clapping his hands once and immediately causing Shadow and Griffon to stop trying to eat Dante, who let out a relieved sigh while finally standing up again.

“Thank you, kid”, Dante removed some inexistent dust from his knees before looking at him, “I honestly thought I was going to die for a moment.”

Until hearing the guitarist Nero hadn’t fully assimilated that Dante, the man who he had promised himself to completely forget a mere minute ago, was just there in front of him, trying to talk with an excessive carefree tone as if nothing had happened.

Well, Nero wasn’t having that.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”, Nero snapped, anger easily replacing the initial nervousness he had felt when seeing the guitarist. 

Dante seemed to understand then that playing casual wasn’t the best approach because he exhaled a long sigh and adopted a more serious expression while placing a hand on the back of his neck, the other leaning relaxedly on his hip.

“Well... we got your resignation letter.”

Nero was aware of V and Kyrie still being there observing the scene in the background when seeing the way Kyrie made a small grimace and V pinched the bridge of his nose while muttering a soft ‘Idiot’, which confirmed him he wasn’t the only one thinking that Dante’s words had been utterly stupid.

“And you came all the way here to tell me?”, Nero snorted, offering Dante his best sarcastic, frowning expression, “well, for _that_ you could have used a message, you know?”

He didn’t bother to hide the bitterness in his tone, and for the way Dante’s expression turned apologetic it seemed that the guitarist had understood the implicit critic of ‘you didn’t even call but here you are to talk about a letter’.

“Yeah, I know. But that’s not the only reason why I am here. Actually…”, Dante gulped softly, rubbing his palms together in front of him with obvious nervousness, “...I wanted to speak to you about something else, kid.”

Nero snorted, insulting himself for the way his heart skipped a beat for being called in such a familiar way again, but he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t allowing himself to be affected by Dante anymore. 

“Well, guess what, old man: whatever you want to say, I don’t give a fuck”, he snapped, fixing his eyes on Dante to brusquely snap the next words, “so if Morrison or the others need something about my resignation then I’ll talk to them, but I don’t want anything to do with you, okay? So now leave the fuck out of here if you don’t want to be eaten by Shadow this time for real.”

Nero’s suspicions about the animals being aware of what they were talking about were confirmed when Shadow growled menacingly, causing Dante to gulp slightly by throwing a side glance towards the feline.

However, even if Nero was pretty stubborn, Dante was surely more, and proved it by winning over his fear in order to look at Nero again.

“Okay, Nero. If that’s what you really want, I will go”, just when Nero was about to turn around to be anywhere but in Dante’s presence, the guitarist kept talking, “but you have to hear me out first. And after it, if you still want me out of here and of your life, I promise I won’t insist anymore.”

Nero tensed, looking at Dante for a moment before averting his eyes towards his friends situated behind Dante, in search of advice. Kyrie was nodding effusively and V, who a moment ago was clearly ready to kill Dante on his behalf, now was looking at the guitarist inquisitively, as if he wasn’t sure about what to think anymore. So, he decided to give Dante the benefit of doubt. 

“Fine”, Nero reluctantly said, fully facing Dante while crossing his arms again, “but if I don’t like what you say, you are still getting eaten, okay?”

Dante exhaled a soft chuckle and nodded.

“Fair enough”, Dante’s eyes and expression acquired seriousness again, “okay, the first thing is that I’m sorry. I behaved like a total jerk in the awards. But, believe it or not, I had a reason for it.”

Nero huffed loudly, kind of disappointed that Dante was going to ruin an apparently decent apology with an attempt of justifying himself.

“Okay, and the reason for being such an asshole was…”

He left the sentence hanging with sarcasm, clearly showing that he was ready to discard whatever excuse Dante tried to come up with.

 

“...that I love you.”

 

Nero didn’t pay the least attention to the gasp that Kyrie exhaled and that V muffled by placing his hand against the woman’s mouth so that she remained quiet, as a knowing expression showed in his face.

He was busy remembering how to breath, and how to form coherent words after hearing Dante said _that_ with a fond, soft tone that sounded scarily similar to all the times he had pictured the guitarist saying such a thing.

“What?”, Nero muttered with his eyes opened wide before shaking his head, gulping so that his voice didn’t sound so damn _hoping_ , “but what the-- t-that has zero fucking sense! Why the hell would you ignore me for a damn week if you loved me?! Fuck, Dante, if this is some kind of joke I swear that--”

“It isn’t.”

Dante immediately said, taking a step forward while luckily interrupting Nero, whose voice was beginning to tremble with a mix of anger, for the possibility of being mocked, and also anticipation, for the perspective of Dante actually saying the truth as illogical as his brain was telling him that was.

“It isn’t a joke, Nero”, Dante repeated, and damn it, the warm, completely secure tone the guitarist used next made Nero’s heart begin to hammer inside his chest, “I love you. I have been doing it for a while now, even if I knew I shouldn’t.”

Nero didn’t dare to fully believe Dante for the fear of letting his hopes up yet so that they were crushed once again, but the last part of the guitarist’s words made him forget about that fear for a moment.

“What do you mean you _shouldn’t_?”, he asked, frowning with confusion.

Dante sighed, averting his eyes to the side for a moment as if gathering his thoughts before looking at Nero again with a light puzzled expression.

“I thought that you were too good for me. And not gonna lie, I still think it. You are kind, clever, handsome, talented and, damn, _young_. And at some point it felt too selfish to force you to stick with the group and with me when you still had so many chances out there--”

“Wait wait wait, stop right there”, Nero looked at Dante with his eyes opened in disbelief, “you think you were ‘forcing’ me to stick with the group _and_ you?”

Dante changed his weight from one leg to the other.

“Well, I learned that Hank had offered you a pretty nice offer and that you were considering to accept it, so when you didn’t mention anything about it I simply thought that you were sacrificing yourself for us.”

Nero opened his mouth and closed it again. He repeated the action a couple of more times, trying to fully understand Dante’s words, but at the end he decided that questions such as how the hell Dante had learned about all that could wait. 

The priority now was to clarify something that, up till then, he thought had been fucking clear since the beginning but apparently wasn’t.

“That’s why you acted like a total asshole? So that I left you and stopped ‘sacrificing’ myself?”, Nero looked at Dante in disbelief when this one nodded while having the decency of showing a half-embarrassed grimace, “Dante, are you fucking kidding me? I fucking attended an audition even if I knew shit about singing just to work with all of you, what the hell made you think I was _sacrificing_ myself?!”

“Okay, maybe ‘sacrifice’ wasn’t the best word to use--”

“You can bet it wasn’t: do I look like a fucking martyr to you?”

“But why didn’t you say anything about the offer then?”

“Because I wasn’t sure to accept it! Damn, I wasn’t even sure if I _could_ with the contract I had signed when you guys hired me, but you can bet that in case I was forced to choose between the group and any other job, I would choose _Devil May Cry_ over everything else because I fucking love working there almost as much as I love _you_!”

Nero didn’t realize he had talked as if he had never resigned, neither that he was practically shouting while doing so, and much less that he had actually said aloud those words without even realizing it and without the least effort, noticing that last detail when seeing the way Dante’s eyes opened wide.

“So... you love me?”

All the embarrassment Nero could have been feeling for the accidental, unplanned confession was replaced by an exasperated laugh.

“No, Dante, I’ve been only crushing for you for almost 10 years but nah, I don’t love you.”

“Well, but it could have been simple attraction”, Dante defended himself as Nero offered him a deadpan expression, “I mean, you went out with people during that time, right? Like Louis, or V even.”

“I disagree: it was just a night so I doubt it counts as properly dating.”

“ _V, sssh!_ ”

“Yeah, well, _of course_ I dated people”, Nero snapped, unaware of his friends’ interventions, “the fact that I didn’t need to fuck a different person each day doesn’t mean I didn’t have my needs as well...”

“Hey now, it wasn’t like that--”

“...but _still_ , even when I was with other people, and even if I knew that the possibilities of actually meeting you were impossible, you _never_ stopped being in my mind.”

Nero felt the tips of his ears reddening due to his own words, but he pushed back his embarrassment to keep talking, because now that he knew that they had been in the damn same page for some time already, he wasn’t letting Dante undervalue himself _again_ , like when he claimed he had done nothing compared to Vergil when they were younger.

That time Nero had been the one in putting some sense in Dante’s thick skull even if at that moment he wasn’t directly involved, but now that he was the damn source of Dante’s now understandable behavior, he was going to make sure to remove all those stupid ideas from the man’s head once and for all.

“And about that shit of me being too good for you what the fuck, old man?”, he exhaled an incredulous laugh, “you were the one who vouched for me even when you barely knew me,  the one who included me in the group’s plans from the very first day even if I was just a simple handyman.”

“Factotum.”

“ _Sssssh_!”

“You fucking rented a private plane for me so that I could see Kyrie immediately after the concert, accompanying me even if you had spent 3 damn hours performing and you surely were damn tired”, Nero continued, unaware once again of Kyrie snapping a hand against V’s mouth because he was busy drowning in Dante’s eyes as the guitarist held his breath, “you always made sure I was comfortable in all the events we were no matter how busy you were. You defended me in front of a damn press conference when that fucking journalist tried to attack Nico and me. Shit, you even agreed on announcing we were together when it was obvious that you had second thoughts about it. And despite _all that_ you still think if I am too good for you?”, Nero snorted, signaling at him with his thumb, “well, bad luck, old man, but this too-good-to-be true handyman has fallen in love with _you_ and like hell if he is going to leave just because your damn self-esteem is even smaller than your brain, you idiot--”

As it usually happened, by when Nero read Dante’s reaction his mouth had already been captured in a passionate kiss. 

He groaned during it, proceeding to return it hungrily while grabbing Dante’s face in his hands as Dante’s arms enclosed around his frame tightly, the close contact and Dante’s palpable desperation to feel him close making Nero’s whole body heat up in a moment. 

Fuck, only a week had passed since their fight, but damn if he hadn’t missed _this_.

“Damn, kid”, Dante exhaled against his lips when they separated, with a fond tone that sounded slightly frustrated, “it was me the one who had come to confess, you know? But you had to go and ruin it with that awesome speech.”

Nero snorted, the blush miraculously managing to stop at his ears.

“Shut the fuck up. I don’t even remember what I’ve said--”

 “ _*snif*_ It was so beautiful.”

“Yes, deserving of a poet I would dare to say, especially when reaching the insults part.”

The blush definitely reached his cheeks this time when finally realizing that V and Kyrie had been there _all the time_ , the first looking at him with a small smirk as Kyrie tried to control her sobs rather poorly.

“What the-- _why the hell didn’t you leave_?!”

“Well, I remind you this is also my house”, V had the nerve to answer with a light reproachful tone, while Kyrie blowed her nose with a tissue and Dante looked about to laugh at any moment, Nero being the only one looking deeply outraged for the situation, “and besides, I was simply waiting in case my pets’ help was necessary again”, the poet addressed Dante at that moment with a charming smile, “I hope you do not bear any resentment towards them or me, Dante. I can guarantee that it did not enter my plans to actually kill you: it was a simple emphatic warning.”

“ _OUT!!_ ”

At least, his friends had the decency of not keeping protesting (much) while abandoning the room, with Kyrie smiling happily through the tears and V looking at Nero with that annoyingly knowing smirk on his face, Griffon posed in his arm while grabbing Shadow’s collar with the other.

Once the door closed behind them Nero cursed, but he was smiling with resignation as Dante began to laugh.

“V was lying, wasn’t he?”, he inquired, “he would have definitely killed me.”

Nero chuckled, shrugging while settling his hands on Dante’s shoulders. 

“Yeah, he would. He can be a little intense.”

Dante hummed to himself, causing Nero to look at Dante in disbelief.

“Please, tell me you aren’t thinking about what I think you’re thinking.”

“And what do you think I was thinking?”

“You know it perfectly, you idiot.”

“Okay, yeah, now that I know how wild V can be I can’t help to wonder if he also was like that when--”

“ _Dante_ …”

“Come on, kid: at least tell me if he was the one who did you or--”

“Old man, I wouldn’t like to remind you about the shitty week you have made me spend, but _maybe_ talking about this is not the best way to convince me to forgive you.”

For once, the king of innuendos wasn’t able to detect the way his tone changed at the end of the sentence, because Dante’s expression turned apologetic again.

“Yeah, I know, kid”, Dante exhaled a soft sigh while averting his eyes, missing the way Nero was holding back a small smirk, “and I understand that a simple apology doesn’t fix it but I’m ready to compensate you in any way I can--”

This time it was Nero’s turn to interrupt his sentence with a wild kiss that made Dante grunt in surprise during it, his expression looking slightly shocked when Nero’s hands began to pull at his t-shirt.

“Wait, kid, what are you--”

“Do I really have to spell it aloud for you?”, Nero snarled now against his neck, grinding forward to make their lower halves connect, obtaining a satisfying groan from Dante, “do the words ‘make-up sex’ ring a bell, old man?”

Dante exhaled a chuckle, forcing Nero’s mouth out of his neck to look at him in that way that always made Nero’s stomach clench in anticipation.

“I can definitely work with that”, Dante rasped against his mouth before Nero’s mouth was captured again.

Despite the urge that they both felt for each other while practically stumbling in his bedroom, the foreplay was more calmed than Nero had expected. They spent several minutes simply making out and tasting each other, hands exploring themselves under the clothes they were still wearing, and only when the heat surrounding them was too suffocating they proceeded to undress until ending fully naked with all the clothes scattered around the floor.

Also, despite Nero’s insistence (and willingness) of sucking Dante off, the guitarist didn’t want to hear about it, stating that he wanted to do all the work, and that’s exactly what he did.

By when they became one, with Nero’s legs wrapped around Dante’s waist and his arms around the guitarist’s back as the man entered him, Nero was at the very edge of coming, his voice already hoarse after Dante prepared him with fingers and tongue until he practically begged the guitarist to start fucking him.

Fortunately, once sheathed inside Dante didn’t make him wait, immediately building a satisfying hard pace from the start that had Nero whining and arching against the guitarist’s body, his nails digging on Dante’s skin practically from the first deep thrust that caused him to see stars.

“ _Nero_ ”, Dante groaned his name after he began to play with his earlobe, while groaning in his ear for how good the guitarist was making him feel, “damn, kid, I--”

When hearing the beginning of his sentence Nero couldn’t help to smirk teasingly at him. 

“Let me guess... _ngh_...you ‘love how I feel’?” 

Dante chuckled, recognizing those words while bending down to approach his face to Nero until their noses were brushing.

“I do”, Dante kissed him softly before burying his eyes in Nero’s ones, “but I love _you_ more.” 

The warmth that spread on his chest when Dante said that with fondness forced Nero to snort, in order to try to remove the stupid, unnecessary lump forming on his throat. 

“Me too, Dante”, Nero attacked the guitarist’s mouth with fierceness, pressing Dante even more against him while beginning to rock back against him, needing to feel him even deeper, “I love you too.”

Dante was kind enough to pretend not to notice the way Nero’s voice trembled slightly at the end, neither to comment anything about the light dampness that was left on his skin when Nero buried his face in the crook of his neck, product of some rebellious tears of happiness and relief that Nero was unable to hold back.

They were still in a tight embrace when reaching their peak together, and they remained like that when Dante finally pulled out from him and they lied on the bed entangled together, too satisfied to care about the sheets having got stained for their respective releases.

“So…”, Dante breathed, his chest going up and down a little more heavily than usual, “...have I gained your forgiveness?”

Nero exhaled a laugh, also placing an arm on the man’s waist, mimicking Dante’s posture.

“For now”, his eyes glinted playfully when talking next, “but I still expect a fully compensation tonight in your king sized bed.”

Dante chuckled, kissing Nero briefly.

“Yeah, these days it has felt too empty without you.”

Nero couldn’t prevent the small, cruel satisfaction that invaded him when learning that at least he wasn’t the only one suffering from his momentary separation.

At that moment, as if remembering something, Dante leaned over the side of the bed to reach for his pants, beginning to fumble with them until extracting something from one of the pockets. Nero observed the guitarist with a confused frown before his eyes opened in recognition when seeing Dante sustaining the pendant that had been his Christmas present.

“This is yours by the way. If you want it back”, Dante said a little hesitantly.

Nero smiled and nodded, causing Dante to smile back while being the one in tying the pendant around Nero’s neck. After that they lied on the bed again, this time with Nero facing up so that Dante could settle an arm across his stomach. Nero touched the jewel, lost in his thoughts, remembering how furious he had been when discarding it. The memory made him look at Dante again with curiosity.

“Can I ask you something?”, when Dante nodded he continued, “why in the ceremony? Breaking up with me I mean.”

Dante exhaled a sigh, making a soothing gesture with his thumb against Nero’s skin before talking. Nero’s eye opened wider when Dante explained him what had happened in the backstage, and when the guitarist stopped talking he exhaled a snort.

“That bitch.”

“Yeah, that was what Trish said.”

“ _Trish_? Swearing?”

“Okay, no, it was Lucia who called Nevan that. My bad.”

“ _That_ I believe it...Wait, so Lucia also knows about what happened?”

“Lucia, and Patty, and everyone”, Dante offered him a self-mocking smile, “why do you think I’m here right now?”

Nero chuckled, feeling a wave of affection towards the rest of the group.

“So they went to talk to you.”

“Yeah, well, that is another way to say that they invaded my home to almost kill me for having let you go.”

“No shit, really?”

“Yep, and for once Nico was the scariest around...hey, don’t laugh! I feared for my life for real, you know? Let me tell you: you _don’t_ want to see that girl angry.”

“Well, I bet she isn’t scarier than V.”

“No, but just because V has a panther. And a really grumpy bird.”

“Yeah, you have a point. So they all went to you apartment? Vergil included?”

“Yep. In fact, he was the one who ended convincing me to go to see you.”

“ _Really_?”

“Yeah, he made a really touching speech about what it means to be in a relationship.”

“Okay, now you are kidding me for sure.”

“I swear I’m not! Ask the others: Patty began to cry because of it.”

“ _What?_ ”

“Yeah, and I would lie if I denied that a couple of tears almost escaped me. He even said he wanted your back because you were pretty important for the group.”

“ _Hah_! Now I’m sure you are lying.”

“Okay, fine: he said you had to come back because he didn’t want to get used to another person less competent.”

“That...actually sounds like your brother a lot.”

“See?”

Nero chuckled when hearing Dante’s childishly proud tone, although at that moment he gasped with his eyes opened wide.

“Shit, the resignation letter! I better call Morrison to tell him I have changed my mind, right?”

He reached for his phone on the bednight table but before being able to dial the old man’s number Dante placed a hand on his. 

“Remember to mention that other offer you got. Because if you really are interested, I’m sure he will be able to fix it.”

Nero gulped softly and nodded, being his turn of offering Dante a light apologetic smile.

“I’m sorry for not having said anything about it before. Maybe in that case you wouldn’t have--”

“What? Screwed it up?”, Dante snorted, “with all the things rounding in my head at that moment I would have done it sooner or later, so be glad I did it before announcing we are together.”

Nero gulped again when Dante brought up that topic. 

“About that…”, his gaze turned more inquisitive while looking at the guitarist, “...what do you think?”

Dante sustained his gaze, and after exhaling a deep sigh he talked.

“Honestly? I think it’s too soon. But not because I have doubts about us being together, or about my reputation, or about all that bullshit I said. It’s just that…”, Dante exhaled a little nervous laugh before talking, signaling them both alternatively with his hand, “...I still don’t trust myself about not screwing this up, you know? So, even if it’s a pain in the ass, do you think you could wait a little more? At least until I’m sure I’m not going to ruin everything _again_.”

Nero was surprised when, instead of disappointment, relief was the feeling that appeared when hearing Dante’s words, which confirmed that perhaps when suggesting the announcement thing he had been a little too drunk and even more worked up, a combination that was wise to avoid when making important decisions.

“Let’s do something”, Nero suggested then, “if we are still together for the next Halloween, we will announce it then.”

Dante’s eyes opened wide.

“But that’s almost a whole year. Are you sure you want to wait that long?”

Nero nodded with resolve.

“If that’s what it takes so that you are convinced that I’m not going to let your flirty ass go anytime soon, yeah, I’m sure.”

Dante began to laugh when hearing Nero.

“Alright then”, Dante pulled him in for another kiss that ended being long and languid, making Nero sigh appreciatively through it, “thank you.”

Nero snorted softly and was about to dive for another kiss to hide his flushed expression when Dante’s mobile began to sound. 

After interchanging a patient glance, Dante reached for his pants again and after recovering the device he turned the speakers on.

“Yeah, Morrison?”

“ _Dante, I’m sorry for bothering you again, but the others were wondering how things had turned out with the kid and they won’t stop bothering me until discovering it.”_

Dante opened his mouth to speak but at the last second a smirk formed in his face while looking at Nero, who smirked back at him and nodded.

“Well, at the end it didn’t pan out”, Dante began to say with a pretty credible sad voice, “so he has decided to be on his own from now on and--”

 

“ **_WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!_ **”

 

Dante and Nero’s eyes opened wide when they heard that combined shout coming from the street instead of from the mobile.  

“No way”, they said at the same time after the initial moment of stupor, rapidly abandoning the bed after it. 

By making the most of Nero’s window reaching above their waists they looked through it, and Nero’s eyes opened even more when seeing the whole _Devil May Cry_ group plus Kyrie plus V and plus the pets waiting on the street next to Nico’s van with horrified expression on their faces, except V who looked rather calm.

Now Nero understood why the group hadn’t insisted in accompanying Dante: they planned to join them eventually nevertheless.

“I told you it was a lie”, V said with a confident tone while the others exhaled respective relieved sighs, being Nico the first one to talk while shaking the fist menacingly towards them.

“Bro, Dante, you are both _dead_.”

“Dante you idiot!! Nero shouldn’t love you for being so mean!!”

“Yeah, I really hope we have cockblocked you, humph!”

“Dante, Nero, say cheese!”

“Lucia, dear, don’t take pictures of them!”

“Why not? They will be perfect if I ever have to blackmail them for being so ‘funny’.”

“Interesting. Lucia, would you be willing to discuss the price of those photographies?”

“Vergil, dude, why would you want to blackmail your own group?”

“For no reason, but maybe I eventually need them for my brother.”

“Oh, and Nero, uhm...maybe you should call Louis?”

“Yes, he will be delighted to know he has broken the special edition of his _Devil May Cry_ poster for nothing.”

“And I do not want to ruin the party, but since I understand that Nero’s resignation letter is not valid anymore, perhaps you want to get dressed to have some actual work done?”

Dante and Nero interchanged a resigned look while the rest laughed for Morrison’s comment, though they were smiling when Dante announced through the mobile that they would be joining them.

“You’re still in time to resign, kid”, Dante said playfully once they were already dressed and Nero was closing the door of the apartment, “because this crew is just going to get crazier and crazier with the years. You sure you don’t want something more peaceful?”

Nero laughed, answering Dante in the same tone.

“You know, if you want me out of the team you will have to find a good argument, old man”, Nero stopped in the middle of the stairs to surprise Dante with a hard, intense kiss, “because I’m pretty sure the others are more than happy with my services.”

Dante smiled against his lips, hugging him so tightly that Nero almost lost balance.

“Yeah, though I doubt they are happier than me right now.”

Nero felt his heart skip a beat because of Dante’s affectionate, sincere words, but of course he wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t answer with a snort.

“Cheesy.”

He immediately regretted saying that when seeing the way Dante teasingly smirked.

“So I am the cheesy one? Because unless my memory fails me I think it was _someone else_ the one who said that...how was it? Oh yes: that no matter who he dated I never stopped being in his mind and--”

“ _DANTE!_ ”

The guitarist was still avoiding Nero’s hits between ‘ouch’s when they left the apartment, moment in which they were assaulted by the others because they were obviously eager to know more details about the reconciliation, since they had been waiting for practically the entire time Nero and Dante had been ‘making up’.

Despite Morrison’s comment of having to go to work, it took very little to convince the agent to make a special detour to go to their favorite place in order to celebrate they had their handyman back, and when Morrison sat behind the wheel he was even whistling to himself as the others continued with the interrogation. Needless to say, V and Kyrie also decided to join the celebration (pets included).

Of course, Nero pretended to be annoyed with the others’ incessant and sometimes too inadequate questions, but while sitting on the couch of the van with Dante’s fingers interlaced with his, he couldn’t possibly remove the wide, idiotic smile that had formed in his face while observing the crazy family he had come to have:

Nico, whose loud and boisterous personality never failed to make everyone laugh, though now he knew you should _never_ make her angry; 

Trish, who always managed to placate the fights with that soft voice of hers, except when she was driving or cooking and everyone had to calm _her_ ;

Lady, who made the most inadequate comments but whose carefree attitude never faltered even in moments of stress;

Vergil, whose cold appearance concealed a person that never missed what was happening in his surroundings, and who didn’t hesitate in helping when necessary (on his own arrogant, way of course); 

Morrison, who was always the voice of reason and had the Heaven won for how patient he was with everyone;

Patty, who was the most emotional, lovely person he had ever met and whose hugs melted even the coldest person (except Vergil, who probably just was able to melt with Saya);

Lucia, whose camera he always had to avoid, but who always managed to have things done and be there whenever and wherever you needed her;

Louis, who despite all the time being apart and the distance was again right there to lend a hand, or an ear, or even break his most favorite poster for Nero (shit, he really had to compensate him for it);

Kyrie, who was the queen of gossiping but whose sweetness and support made him love her like a sister.

V, who got on his nerves more times than not with that annoying talent of always being right, but who wouldn’t hesitate in throwing his panther at however who dared to hurt his friends.

And last but definitely not least: Dante, the guitarist of _Devil May Cry_ who caught Nero’s attention since the first song he listened of him, and for whom he fell in love when discovering that all what he could have imagined about the man fell short compared to reality. 

Nero knew that, for sure, Dante and him would face difficulties while being together. The same way, no one could predict with 100% of accuracy how or where everyone would be in a year. After all, life was like that sometimes. It didn’t matter how much you tried to plan certain things, sometimes they developed in a way you couldn’t predict, like that day when Nero decided to step down the bus in an earlier stop to grab the poster of his favorite band and his life was turned around in a way he could have never wished for.

However, there was something Nero knew without the slightest doubt. And that ‘something’ was that, at least at that moment, there was no other place where he preferred to be: with Dante by his side, loving him and looking happier than he had ever seen him be, and with all that unique people ready to fight for him whenever it was necessary.

Besides, he thought with amusement, by basing on the nominations obtained by the group after he joined the crew, it was evident that any proper rock band needed a handyman in order to achieve an even greater success, and therefore Nero was determined to stick with the group to make sure that _Devil May Cry_ became the best rock band of all the times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand like that, the love story between the guitarist and the handyman comes to an end :’)
> 
> I think I couldn’t have come up with a cheesier ending even if trying xD But after writing these characters for so many months I needed to dedicate at least a couple of lines to each one of them at the end or otherwise I felt I wasn’t doing them justice <3
> 
> Initially I planned to make a quick epilogue of Dante announcing that Nero and him were together a year later, but I’m pretty satisfied with how the ending has turned out, so now I’m not sure about adding it or not. I will see :)
> 
> Finally, I have a couple of ideas that I didn’t manage to include in the main story, so after advancing a little in my other fic I will surely update some side stories as one shots :)
> 
> And that’s pretty much all :) All the thanks and love to everyone that read, commented and gave kudos to this fic <3 <3 <3  
> I really hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it ^^


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